Motorists Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ironics, Inc. (Slip Opinion)

2022 Ohio 841, 200 N.E.3d 149, 168 Ohio St. 3d 467
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 23, 2022
Docket2020-0306
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 2022 Ohio 841 (Motorists Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ironics, Inc. (Slip Opinion)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Motorists Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ironics, Inc. (Slip Opinion), 2022 Ohio 841, 200 N.E.3d 149, 168 Ohio St. 3d 467 (Ohio 2022).

Opinion

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as Motorists Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ironics, Inc., Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-841.]

NOTICE This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports. Readers are requested to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published.

SLIP OPINION NO. 2022-OHIO-841 MOTORISTS MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, APPELLANT, v. IRONICS, INC., ET AL., APPELLEES.

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as Motorists Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ironics, Inc., Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-841.] Insurance—Commercial umbrella insurance policy—Third party incorporated insured’s contaminated product into its glass containers, which then had to be scrapped—Claims against insured by the third party are covered under insured’s commercial umbrella insurance policy because they arose out of an accident that resulted in “property damage” under the policy and no policy exclusions apply. (No. 2020-0306—Submitted March 4, 2021— Decided March 23, 2022.) APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Wood County, No. WD-19-018, 2020-Ohio-137. ________________ SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

BRUNNER, J. {¶ 1} This appeal calls for us to consider whether an umbrella insurance policy between plaintiff-appellant, Motorists Mutual Insurance Company (“Motorists”), and defendant-appellee Ironics, Inc., applies to claims made against Ironics by defendant-appellee Owens-Brockway Glass Container, Inc. (“Owens”). The trial court held that the umbrella policy does not apply and therefore granted summary judgment in favor of Motorists, but the Sixth District Court of Appeals reversed. We affirm the Sixth District.

I. Background ........................................................................................................ ¶ 2

II. Analysis ............................................................................................................ ¶ 8

A. Standard of review ..................................................................................... ¶ 8

B. Burden of proof .......................................................................................... ¶ 9

C. Do Owens’s claims fall within the coverage provisions? ........................ ¶ 10

1. Was there “property damage”? ........................................................... ¶ 11

a. Owens’s claims against Ironics are for “property damage”........ ¶ 14

b. Decisions in analogous cases support ................................................

the finding that Owens’s claims involve “property damage” ..... ¶ 23

c. We decline to adopt the integrated-system rule to determine ............

whether a claim involves “property damage” ............................. ¶ 25

i. Adopting the integrated-system rule ............................................

would undermine reliance on contracts ................................ ¶ 26

ii. Wisconsin Pharmacal is not persuasive ................................ ¶ 33

2 January Term, 2022

iii. Cases cited by Motorists do not require a contrary holding .. ¶ 37

2. Was there an “accident”? .................................................................... ¶ 42

a. The principle of fortuity and Custom Agri .................................. ¶ 43

b. The parties’ arguments ................................................................ ¶ 49

c. Owens’s claims arose out of an “occurrence” ............................ ¶ 53

D. Do any of the policy exclusions apply? ................................................... ¶ 63

III. Conclusion .................................................................................................... ¶ 68

I. BACKGROUND {¶ 2} Ironics is in the business of buying and selling metal products, including waste generated by steel mills and similar facilities. This case involves a material originally generated as waste by a steel mill in Youngstown that makes tubular products. Ironics obtained the waste product—“tube scale”—in raw form and, after having it processed, resold it to a number of customers. {¶ 3} Owens manufactures glass containers. In October and November 2016, it purchased tube scale from Ironics to use as a coloring agent to make its containers amber or brown. After using Ironics’s tube scale to make glass containers, however, Owens discovered that chrome stones were embedded in the containers. The presence of these stones increased the likelihood that the glass containers would break. The stones could not be removed from the glass, nor could the containers otherwise be restored to use. Owens therefore had to scrap more than 1,850 tons of glass containers. {¶ 4} Upon investigation, Ironics discovered that the tube scale had been contaminated when its materials processor, American Waste Management,

3 SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

subcontracted the tube-scale screening to another company, Foundry Sand Services (“Foundry”). According to Ironics, raw tube scale fell onto the ground while it was being screened by Foundry. American Waste Management instructed Foundry to put the fallen tube scale back into the screening process, but the fallen tube scale had been contaminated with chrome stones, a material that Foundry also processed. {¶ 5} In January 2017, Owens asserted claims against Ironics for breach of contract, breach of warranties contained in the purchase orders for the tube scale, violations of the Uniform Commercial Code, negligence, and product liability. Ironics asked Motorists, as its insurer, to defend and indemnify it against Owens’s claims. Ironics had a commercial general-liability policy (“CGL policy”) and a commercial umbrella policy (“umbrella policy”) with Motorists. Motorists sought a declaratory judgment that it had no obligation to defend and indemnify Ironics against Owens’s claims under either policy. The trial court held that neither policy covered Owens’s claims, and it granted summary judgment in favor of Motorists. {¶ 6} The Sixth District Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part the trial court’s summary-judgment decision. The appellate court held that Ironics was not entitled to coverage under the CGL policy but was entitled to coverage under the umbrella policy. With respect to the umbrella policy, the Sixth District held that Owens’s claims against Ironics were covered because the parties had stipulated that Ironics was not aware that the tube scale was contaminated at the time it was used by Owens to make its glass containers and the contaminated tube scale caused physical injury to the containers manufactured by Owens. The Sixth District also held that none of the umbrella policy’s coverage exclusions applied. Thus, the court held that Ironics was entitled to coverage for the damage claimed by Owens. {¶ 7} Motorists appealed the judgment of the Sixth District to this court, asserting a single proposition of law for our review: “The incorporation of a defective ingredient into an integrated product or system does not constitute

4 January Term, 2022

damage to ‘other’ property for purposes of liability coverage under commercial general liability and umbrella policies.” See 158 Ohio St.3d 1504, 2020-Ohio- 2819, 144 N.E.3d 444. II. ANALYSIS A. Standard of review {¶ 8} “Our review of cases involving a grant of summary judgment is de novo.” Marusa v. Erie Ins. Co., 136 Ohio St.3d 118, 2013-Ohio-1957, 991 N.E.2d 232, ¶ 7. This case also involves contract interpretation. Our role is therefore “to give effect to the intent of the parties to the agreement.” Westfield Ins. Co.

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2022 Ohio 841, 200 N.E.3d 149, 168 Ohio St. 3d 467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/motorists-mut-ins-co-v-ironics-inc-slip-opinion-ohio-2022.