American Automobile Insurance v. J.P. Noonan Transportation, Inc.

12 Mass. L. Rptr. 493
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedNovember 16, 2000
DocketNo. 970325
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 12 Mass. L. Rptr. 493 (American Automobile Insurance v. J.P. Noonan Transportation, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Automobile Insurance v. J.P. Noonan Transportation, Inc., 12 Mass. L. Rptr. 493 (Mass. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

McHugh, J.

In this case, two insurers, American Automobile Insurance Company (“American”) and Maryland Casualty Company (“Maryland”) seek to recover from defendant J.P. Noonan Transportation, Inc. (“Noonan”) by way of subrogation money American and Maryland (collectively the “Insurers”) paid on behalf of their insured, Community Service Stations, Inc. (“Community”) to settle pollution claims brought against Community. The Insurer’s claim that Noonan, a petroleum carrier, spilled some material on Community’s property and that that material migrated onto the property of Community’s abutters ultimately producing the claim the Insurers paid to settle.

Discovery now is proceeding. The Insurers have produced a substantial quantity of documents. Noonan, however, seeks some additional documents the Insurers have refused to produce on grounds that those documents are covered by one or more privileges. 1 Disagreeing, Noonan has filed the present motion to compel.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Like most disputes involving the applicability of a privilege, resolution of this one requires an awareness of the factual context in which it arises. Community has owned property at 79 Needham Street in Newton since 1929 and, until 1986, operated a bulk fuel oil storage facility and gasoline service station on the property.

Over the years, Community had at least two pollution-related problems. In 1974, Noonan allegedly spilled more than 1000 gallons of fuel onto Community’s property as well as the property of Community’s immediate neighbor, New England Concrete Pipe (“Concrete”). In 1986, leaks were found in underground storage tanks on Community’s properly as those tanks were being removed. Community remediated the site at cost of approximately $400,000, and its attorney, Saul Benowitz (“Benowitz”), sought to obtain reimbursement for the remediation costs from Community’s insurers. One of those insurers paid all the remediation costs except for a $10,000 deductible. American, from whom Community had purchased policies between 1985 and 1988, denied coverage and refused reimbursement.

The present issues arose in January of 1992 when Concrete notified Community that Community was responsible for some gasoline and fuel oil contamination of Concrete’s property. By the time Community received Concrete’s notice, Community was also aware that another neighbor, Boston Office Furniture ("Furniture”) also had discovered petroleum contamination on its property and believed that that contamination had come from Community.

To deal with the problems it realized it was facing, in January of 1992, Community hired the law firm of [494]*494Andersen & Krieger (“Andersen”) to represent its interests. It also hired an environmental consultant to provide an expert analysis that it might need to resist the claims it expected from Concrete and Furniture. Andersen and Benowitz also notified Community’s then-current and former insurers of the problems and sought from them financial assistance in their solution. In June 1992, Community received a formal claim notice from Concrete in the form of a letter of the type envisioned by G.L.c. 21E, §4A. Community received a similar notice from Furniture in January of 1993.

None of Community’s insurers enthusiastically leaped to its defense. Accordingly, in April 1992, Benowitz filed on Community’s behalf a declaratory judgment action against an insurer not involved in the present dispute seeking a judgment that that insurer was responsible for defense or clean — up costs. Benowitz added American as a defendant to that action in July of 1992. In August of 1992, one month after it was named a defendant in Community’s suit, American agreed to contribute up to $6000 to fund a groundwater flow study. In December of 1993, American agreed to pay 1 / 3 of Community's defense costs retroactive to January 1993 for the claim advanced by Furniture and retroactive to May of 1993 for the claim advanced by Concrete.

Up to this point, Maryland was not involved in Community’s declaratory-judgment action. In May of 1994, however, Community amended its action to add Maryland as a defendant. Shortly thereafter, Maryland and American agreed between themselves and with Community that each would fund 50% of Community’s defense costs retroactive to January of 1993 for the Furniture claim and to May of 1993 for the Concrete claim. In November of that year, Andersen negotiated a settlement of the Furniture claim. American and Maryland each agreed to pay 30% of the settlement and Community paid the balance.

Andersen then turned its attention to seeking a settlement with Concrete. By June 1995, Concrete had hired an environmental engineer to remediate contaminated areas on its property and had informed Community that remediation of the area it claimed Community had polluted would cost $335,000. Ultimately, in August 1995, Community settled with Concrete for $350,000, $75,000 of which came from Community itself, $166,666.67 of which came from American and $108,333.33 came from Maryland.

On or about July 5, 1994, some 13 months before Community arranged its settlement with Concrete, Andersen delivered to Noonan a letter of the type G.L.c. 21E, §4A envisions claiming that Noonan was responsible for the 1974 oil spill and its alleged consequences. On July 21, 1995, Andersen submitted to Noonan a second letter of the same tenor. On August 8, 1996, Andersen represented Community and the Insurers in a mediation with counsel for Noonan designed to resolve the claims Community had made. The mediation was unsuccessful and this action was filed on January 17, 1997. At that point, Andersen ceased its representation of Community and the Insurers with respect to the latter’s claims against Noonan.

THE DISCOVERY

During the course of discovery, Noonan made a series of document requests to which the Insurers responded. The requests and responses that currently divide the parties are as follows:

REQUESTS 5, 6. Complete copies of any and all claim files with respect to any claims submitted regarding any and all alleged contamination, at any time, at the property located at 79 Needham Street, Newton, Massachusetts, and/or 99 Needham Street, Newton, Massachusetts, pursuant to any and all policies of insurance issued by the plaintiffls], [American or Maryland] which provided liability and/or property insurance coverage for Community . . . Concrete . . . the property located at 79 Needham Street, Newton, Massachusetts, or the property located at 99 Needham Street, Newton, Massachusetts.
RESPONSES 5,6. [American and Maryland object] to this Request to the extent it seeks documents prepared in anticipation of litigation and/or protected from discovery by the attorney-client privilege, work product doctrine, joint defense privilege, or other privilege. Without waiving these objections, [American and Maryland state] that [they] will produce responsive, non-privileged portions of any such claims files which have not been previously produced.
REQUEST 10.

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Bluebook (online)
12 Mass. L. Rptr. 493, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-automobile-insurance-v-jp-noonan-transportation-inc-masssuperct-2000.