STRINGFELLOW CASE FINDINGS

Key points of a California appellate court ruling concerning hazardous waste insurance coverage

Policyholders do not lose any coverage for a partially insured loss when they cannot show the portion of the loss that is attributable to a covered risk.

The "relevant discharge" in determining a covered environmental contamination incident is when pollutants leak into the environment--not when they are deposited at a waste site.

Groundwater contamination is not an excluded loss under the commercial general liability policy's watercourse exclusion, because watercourses--unlike groundwater--have defined boundaries.