President & Fellows of Harvard College v. Westchester Fire Insurance

28 Mass. L. Rptr. 113
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedFebruary 24, 2011
DocketNo. 095398BLS2
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 28 Mass. L. Rptr. 113 (President & Fellows of Harvard College v. Westchester Fire Insurance) 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
President & Fellows of Harvard College v. Westchester Fire Insurance, 28 Mass. L. Rptr. 113 (Mass. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Fabricant, Judith, J.

This action presents a dispute over insurance coverage for environmental contamination. Before the Court are cross motions for summary judgment between plaintiff President & Fellows of Harvard College (Harvard) and defendants Westchester Fire Insurance Company (Westchester) and United States Fire Insurance Company (US Fire, or, with Westchester, the insurers), along with a motion to dismiss by defendant Crum & Forster Holdings Corp. on the ground of lack of jurisdiction. For the reasons that will be explained, Harvard’s motion for summaiy judgment will be allowed as against the insurers, and Crum & Forster’s motion to dismiss will be denied without prejudice to renewal after discovery limited to the issue of personal jurisdiction.

BACKGROUND

The record before the Court establishes the following facts as undisputed. Westchester issued to Harvard a series of six comprehensive general liability and umbrella insurance policies covering the period of July 1, 1963, to July 1, 1972.2 Pricing for the policies was based on an annual amount per student enrolled in the University. The policies did not refer to or incorporate any list of covered real properties, activities, or other risks associated with the insured. United States Fire Insurance Company now has responsibility for the Westchester policies.3

The insuring clause of the 1963-1969 CGL policy4 requires Westchester to pay “all sums which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of injury to or destruction of property, including the loss thereof, resulting from an occurrence.” The policy defines an “occurrence” as

an unexpected event or happening which results in . . . injury to or destruction of property during the policy period or a continuous or repeated exposure to conditions which results in . . . injury to or destruction of property during the policy period, provided the insured did not intend or anticipate that injury would result.

Westchester also agreed that “(w]ith respect to such insurance as is afforded under this policy, the company shall: (a) defend any suit against the insured alleging such injury, sickness, disease, or destruction and seeking damages on account thereof, even if such suit is groundless, false or fraudulent. . .” Endorsement #9, entitled “WORLD-WIDE COVERAGE,” amended the territorial scope of the coverage to include “occurrences which happen during the policy period anywhere in the world.”

On September 30, 1988, Harvard bought property located at 1609 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. Among the commercial tenants then occupying the property was Crimson Cleaners, a dry cleaning business that had been operating there since the 1950s.5 Crimson Cleaners and/or its predecessors used per-chloroethylene (PCE). In 1989 and early 1990, Harvard, through its environmental consultant, McPhail Associates, Inc. (McPhail) conducted an environmental site assessment of the property. The assessment confirmed the presence of PCE in shallow soils and groundwater “limited to localized areas of the parking lot, particularly in the area behind Crimson Cleaners.” According to the McPhail report, “the [PCE] in the groundwater, although in excess of normal background levels, is within acceptable limits and is considered to have no significant impact or threat of impact on the groundwater quality at the site.” Har[114]*114vard notified the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and conducted a limited removal action. That action, according to McPhail, achieved a permanent solution. DEP did not require further action at that time.

In November 2006, in the context of a construction project on the Harvard Law School campus, Harvard conducted groundwater sampling. Sampling results received on November 30, 2006, revealed the presence of PCE in groundwater at levels that, under regulatory standards in effect at that time,6 required prompt notification of DEP pursuant to 310 C.M.R. 40.0000, etseq. Harvard gave the required notice to DEP, which, exercising its statutory and regulatory authority, determined that the situation constituted “a release or threat of release of material that constituted or could pose an immediate hazard.” On that basis, it orally directed Harvard to institute certain “Immediate Response Actions.”

On January 16, 2007, DEP issued a Notice of Responsibility (NOR) that identified Harvard as a “Potentially Responsible Party (PRP) liable for response actions and costs under G.L.c. 2IE, §5.” Harvard’s liability, the NORstated, was “joint and several, meaning that you may be liable for all response action costs incurred at the site, regardless of the existence of any other liable parties.” The NOR stated that PCE contamination existed at the Crimson Cleaners site and had migrated to additional properties owned by Harvard and others. It ordered Harvard to take certain specific, as well as other, more general, response actions, and advised that “[t]he subject site shall not be deemed to have had all necessary and required response actions unless and until all substantial hazards presented by the site have been eliminated and a level of No Significant Risk . . . exists or has been achieved . . .”

The NOR further advised Harvard that, if it did not comply, it “may be liable for up to three (3) times all response action costs incurred by MassDEP . . . [including], without limitation, the cost of direct hours spent by MassDEP employees arranging for response actions or overseeing work performed by persons other than MassDEP or their contractors, expenses incurred by MassDEP in support of those direct hours, and payments to MassDEP contractors”; that MassDEP could assess interest on costs at the rate of twelve percent compounded annually; that to secure payment, the Commonwealth could place liens on Harvard’s property and foreclose on those liens; that Harvard could also be liable for damages to natural resources; that civil and criminal liability could be imposed pursuant to G.L.c. 21E, §11; and that civil administrative penalties could be imposed under G.L.c. 21A, §16 for each violation of c. 21E, the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP) or any “order, permit or approval issued thereunder.”7

Harvard proceeded with the response actions ordered by DEP, under the supervision of Licensed Site Professional (LSP) Deborah H. Gevalt and the firm of Haley & Aldrich. It also undertook a dendroecological investigation, which involved analyzing tree rings and their chemical compounds, so as to determine whether releases of PCE had occurred during the period of the Westchester policies. On November 29, 2007, while it awaited the results of the dendroecological assessment, Harvard’s attorney sent a letter to Westchester and Resolute Management Inc. (Resolute), the entity Harvard then believed was responsible for the Westchester policies, notifying them that it reserved the right to seek indemnification and defense under the policies for its investigation and response actions in response to the NOR.

Harvard’s attorney received a response in the form of a letter dated January 4, 2008, from Claims Specialist Steven Albertson. Albertson’s letterhead displayed the name “Crum & Forster” in large type, followed by “A Fairfax Company,” and then, in smaller type, the names of US Fire and two other companies.

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Bluebook (online)
28 Mass. L. Rptr. 113, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/president-fellows-of-harvard-college-v-westchester-fire-insurance-masssuperct-2011.