Lloyd's syndicates must pay $9.6 million of environmental cleanup costs
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A New Mexico state court jury rendered a verdict awarding $9.6 million to United Nuclear Corp., a former uranium miner, which was seeking coverage for remediation and other costs from Lloyd’s of London underwriting syndicates.
“The verdict was the first in New Mexico in favor of a policyholder against its insurers in connection with the environmental cleanup of a former uranium mine,’’ attorney Keith Lynott of McCarter & English L.L.P., Newark, N.J., lead counsel for United Nuclear, said in an email this week. “This bodes well for other owners and operators of uranium mines throughout New Mexico that seek to establish coverage under liability policies they purchased in the 1960s and 1970s.”
Defendants’ counsel Judy Barasso of Barrasso, Usdin, Kupperman, Freeman & Sarver, L.L.C., in New Orleans, declined comment on the case when contacted by a Business Insurance reporter.
The McKinley County jury reached its verdict on Jan. 30.
Besides awarding United Nuclear the $9.6 million in past investigation and remediation costs incurred in connection with the closed Northeast Church Rock uranium mine near Gallup, New Mexico, the jury also determined the company is entitled to coverage for its future cleanup costs under all of the policies it purchased from Lloyd’s and the other London market insurers, covering nine annualized periods from 1965 to 1973, Mr. Lynott said.
The defendants are identified in court papers as “Certain Underwriters of Lloyd’s” are individual syndicates not specified in the latest papers.
United Nuclear developed and operated the closed mine, beginning with exploratory borings in the early 1960s and continuing to 1982, when active mining ceased. The company and its indirect parent, General Electric Co., are undertaking a cleanup required under oversight of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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