An Ambiguous Pollution Exclusion means the Insurer has a Duty to Defend

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has reversed the ruling of a lower court and decided that Wesco Insurance company does have a duty to defend the insured, Brad Ingram Construction. The case is Wesco Ins. Co. v. Brad Ingram Constr., 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 1488 (9th Cir. 2024). Please note that this case is unpublished and therefore has limited precedential value.

The Camp Fire wildfire occurred in Paradise, California in 2018, destroyed thousands of buildings, and left behind millions of pounds of toxic debris. The California Department of Resources, Recycling, and Recovery (CalRecycle) hired Ceres Environmental Services (Ceres) as a contractor as part of the effort to clean up the area. Ceres hired other subcontractors to assist in the job, including Garlow Transport (Garlow), a trucking company. Richard Vargas was an employee of Garlow and worked on the cleanup effort during the summer of 2019, where he drove hundreds of loads of debris from work sites to waste dumps.