Ronald John SMITH, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
HARTFORD ACCIDENT & INDEMNITY COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
INSURANCE COMPANY OF NORTH AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
Ronald John SMITH; Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
Ronald John SMITH; John Edgar Gale; Philip John Freemen,
American Home Assurance Company and National Union
Fire Insurance Company, et al.,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
INSURANCE COMPANY OF NORTH AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.
Nоs. 91-16758, 91-16876, 91-16877, 92-15815, 92-16901 and 92-16957.
United States Court of Appeals,
Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted June 15, 1993.
Decided Nov. 26, 1993.
As Amended on Denial of Rehearing
May 3, 1994.
Jeffrey S. Davidson, Kirkland & Ellis, Los Angeles, CA, for appellant.
John R. Tomlinson and David M. Schoeggl, Lane Powell Spears Lubersky, Seattle, WA, for appellees Ronald John Smith, et al.
Thomas F. Connell, Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, Washington, DC, for appellee Ins. Co. of North America.
Peter W. Davis, Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May, Oakland, CA, for appellee Hartford Acc. and Indem. Co.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.
Before: FAIRCHILD*, BEEZER, and WIGGINS, Circuit Judges.
ORDER
The opinion filed November 26, 1993, and published at
With this amendment, the panel has voted unanimously to deny the petitions for rehearing filed by Hughes Aircraft Company, Insurance Company of North America, and Smith & Companies.
The petitions for rehearing are DENIED.
AMENDED OPINION
WIGGINS, Circuit Judge:
OVERVIEW
In 1985, approximately 2,400 residents of the City of Tucson ("the Valenzuela claims") sued Hughes Aircraft Company ("Hughes") for injuries arising out of contamination of their drinking water due to Hughes' practice of discharging trichloroethylene ("TCE") into unlined ponds. In 1991, Hughes settled the Valenzuela claims with a payment of almost $85 million. Ronald John Smith and other Lloyd's underwriters ("Lloyd's"), Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company ("Hartford"), and Insurance Company of North America ("INA") (collectively referred to as "Insurers") brought declaratory judgment actions beginning in 1988 to dеtermine their respective liability for the Valenzuela claims.
On September 6, 1991, the district court granted summary judgment for the Insurers with respect to policies issued between 1971 and 1985,
I. Standard of Review
We review de novo the district court's grants of summary judgment. See FDIC v. O'Melveny & Meyers,
II. Merits
A. The September 6, 1991, Order Granting Summary Judgment for Insurers. (Nos. 91-16758, 91-16876, & 91-16877)
1. The AVN 46A Pollution Exclusion.
The district court concluded that the language of AVN 46A unambiguously excluded pollution risks not only in the aviation policies, but also in the excess CGL policies.1 Hughes argues that the drafting history of AVN 46A and the testimony of key Lloyd's witnesses demonstrate that Lloyd's never intended the exclusion to apply to anything but aviation coverage. The district court refused to consider this evidence becаuse Hughes "failed to tie it to the parties' intent." We agree with Hughes. Hughes presented evidence from Hughes' former insurance manager that his understanding of AVN 46A was based in part on AVN 46A's drafting history. Because it is unclear from the language of the exclusion whether AVN 46A applied to the CGL policy, this evidence is admissible to indicate the real agreement of the parties. See Darner Motor Sales v. Universal Underwriters Ins. Co.,
Hughes also presented evidence that its agents understood AVN 46A to apply only to aviation risks. Moreover, the plain language of AVN 46A, when read in its entirety, contains ambiguities that preclude summary judgment. For example, the AVN abbreviation denotes that the exclusion came from the aviation form book; the first AVN 46A exclusion, for noise, vibration, and sonic booms, appears to apply only to airplanes; and all four AVN 46A exclusions are subject to an exception for "a crash, explosion or collision or a recorded in-flight emergency causing abnormal aircraft operation." Thus, because Hughes' interpretation of the evidence regarding its understanding of AVN 46A supports the conclusion that the exclusion did not apply to non-aviation risks, we reverse the grant of summary judgment.
2. The "Sudden and Accidental" Exception to the Pollution Exclusion.
The district court concludеd, as a matter of law, that the so-called pollution exclusion contained in the Insurers' 1974-1985 policies precluded coverage. The pollution exclusion contains an exception for "sudden and accidental" discharges.3 The district court concluded that this exception did not apply because (1) under both Arizona and California law, the definition of "sudden" incorporates a notion of temporal brevity and does not merely meаn unexpected; and (2) under the Valenzuela facts, the claimants' injuries were the result of pollution that was not "sudden." We agree.
a. "Sudden" Connotes Temporal Brevity.
Under Arizona law, the district court correctly concluded that the phrase "sudden and accidental" is ambiguous because different jurisdictions have interpreted the provision differently. See Federal Ins. Co. v. P.A.T. Homes, Inc.,
Under California law, the district court summarily concluded that no ambiguity existed, citing only United States Fid. & Guar. Co. v. Morrison Grain Co.,
[A]ccidental conveys the sense of an unexpected or unintended event, while "sudden" conveys the sense of an unexpected event that is abrupt or immediate in nature. "Sudden and accidental" is not ambiguous if we give the words their full significance. A court should not make a phrase ambiguous by unreasonably truncating a word's meaning.
Shell Oil,
Hughes argues that the pollution exclusion was drafted as a mere "clarification" of the "occurrence" definition contained in prior CGL policies and that the insurance industry, in selling the new exclusion, stated that the new pollution exclusion did not reduce coverage. However, we agrеe with the district court that the drafting and marketing history of the pollution exclusion is not only unclear but also irrelevant because Hughes has not shown that it relied on this history or that the history played any part in the policy negotiations. See AIU,
b. The Valenzuela Claims were Caused by Hughes' Gradual, Non-Sudden Pollution.
Hughes further argues on two grounds that the pollution exclusion does not exclude coverage: (1) TCE was not a contaminant or pollutant within the pollution exclusion for most of the relevant time period and (2) certain "sudden" polluting events contributed to the Valenzuela injuries. We disagree.
First, thе fact that TCE was not listed as a pollutant by the EPA until the late 1970's does not help Hughes because the language of the exclusion does not require such a listing. The pollution exclusion excludes injuries arising out of the "discharge, dispersal, [or] release" of, inter alia, "toxic chemicals, liquids or gases, [or] waste materials or other irritants." Because Hughes does not and could not claim that TCE is not a toxic chemical, liquid, waste material, or irritant, we rejеct its first ground. Moreover, because Hughes raises this argument for the first time on appeal, Hughes has waived it. See Gruver v. Midas Intern. Corp.,
Second, Hughes' argument that certain "sudden" polluting events partially caused the injuries to the Venezuela claimants also fails. These "sudden" polluting events caused TCE and other toxic chemicals to be dumped directly into Hughes' unlined ponds. They occurred when the waste treatment plant broke down or was over-capacitated or when TCE was spilled onto the work floor and was pushed into a drain that bypassed the treatment plant. The district court properly rejected Hughes' effort to "break down its long-term waste practices into temporal components in order to find coverage where the evidence unequivocally demonstrates that the pollution was gradual." Accordingly, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment for the Insurers regarding the pоllution exclusion.
B. The March 19, 1992, Order Declining to Review the Clerk's Award of Costs to Hartford. (No. 92-15815)
Based on its summary judgment victory in the September 6, 1991, order, Hartford filed an application for costs. Hartford sought costs of $62,170.73, the vast majority of which were reimbursement for Hartford's 20% share of deposition costs under a cost-sharing agreement with the other insurers. After a hearing, the district court clerk granted Hartford $55,777.83. Hughes filed a motion for review pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(d). The district court (1) denied Hughes' motion as untimely and (2) concluded that had Hughes' motion been timely, it would have denied the motion on the merits because the depositions for which Hartford sought reimbursement were "necessarily obtained." We agree with the district court's second conclusion.4
We review the district court's determination of the nature and amount of the costs award for an abuse of discretion. Haagen-Dazs Co. v. Double Rainbow Gourmet Ice Creams, Inc.,
First, as the district court correctly noted, this court has not clearly allocated between the prevailing and losing party the burden of demonstrating whether deposition costs are "necessarily obtained" under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1920. The district court relied on out-of-circuit cases that appear to place the burden on the losing party. See Hudson v. Nabisco Brands, Inc.,
Second, we reject Hughes' contention that the district court could not conclude that the deposition costs were "necessarily obtained" because Hartford failed to detail why each deposition was necessary. The district court's order specifically addresses each category of depositions and adequately explains why they were necessary for Hartford. In light of the fact that the district court was "intimately familiar" with the proceedings that led to the imposition of costs, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by concluding that Hartford's deposition costs were "necessarily obtained." See Haagen-Dazs,
C. The September 16, 1992, Order Granting Summary Judgment for INA and Lloyd's. (Nos. 92-16901 & 92-16957)
1. The "Expected" or "Intended" Requirement.
a. The District Court Properly Inferred an Exclusion for "Expected" or "Intended" Damage.
The district court inferred an exclusion into the pre-1971 policies for damages that Hughes "expected or intended." The court further ruled that a subjective standard should be used to measure Hughes' intent. Hughes contends that this inference was error. Specifically, Hughes argues that the district court erred by extending the public policy stated in California Insurance Code Sec. 533 to include "expected" harm.5 We disagree.
"A 'willful act' under section 533 must ... include a deliberate liability-producing act that the individual, before acting, expected to cause harm." Shell Oil,
Hughes also contends that the district court erred in failing to admit extrinsic evidence that INA believed that policies similar to the policies in this case provided coverage for "expected" harm. However, these memoranda and letters were not created before 1970, after Hughes' INA policies had expired, and were therefore never seen, much less relied upon by Hughes during its negotiations with INA. Therefore, we conclude that Hughes' extrinsic evidence is neither persuasive nor relevant and that the district court properly refused to consider it. See AIU,
b. The District Court Erred in Ruling that Hughes Expected or Intended the Injuries.
In granting summary judgment, the district court concluded that Hughes "expected" the damage that it caused the Valenzuela claimants. "The appropriate test for 'expected' damage is whether the insured knew or believed its conduct was substantially certain or highly likely to result in that kind of damage." Shell Oil,
First, the district court improperly based its conclusion that Hughes expected or intended the Valenzuela injuries, in large part, on Hughes' disposal of chromium. This was error because the Valenzuela injuries were not caused by chromium contamination. There is no evidence that the Valenzuela claimants were ever exposed to harmful levels of chromium; the Valenzuela wells never contained excess chromium and were never closed based on chromium contamination. Rаther, the City of Tucson closed wells because of the presence of organic solvents like TCE. Accordingly, on remand the district court should not rely on evidence of Hughes' chromium disposal practices to establish the conclusion that Hughes expected or intended injury from TCE.
Second, the evidence that Hughes expected or intended injuries caused by TCE contamination is insufficient for summary judgment. In reaching its conclusion that Hughes expected оr intended to cause injuries by its disposal of TCE, the district court relied on evidence that TCE was toxic in some concentration if ingested. However, Hughes raises a genuine issue of material fact by arguing that, until recently, exposure to moderate amounts of TCE was not considered harmful. TCE was commonly used as an anesthetic and disinfectant. It was also used to extract hops, decaffeinate coffee, and to prepare fish meal. It was not until 1977 that the FDA first proposed banning TCE as a food additive. The first recommended, non-binding TCE standard for drinking water was not promulgated by the EPA until 1979. Moreover, Hughes introduced evidence that the common and preferred method of disposing of TCE was to put it on the ground to evaporate. Further, throughout the applicable period, regulatory agencies did not comment on Hughes' TCE disposal practices.
In light of this evidence, we cannot conclude that Hughes "knеw or believed its [disposal of TCE] was substantially certain or highly likely to result" in harm to the Valenzuela claimants. See Shell Oil,
2. The Requirement that Injuries Must Occur During the Policy Period.
a. The District Court Properly Inferred a Requirement that the Valenzuela Injuries Must Occur During the Policy Period.
INA's CGL policies (and Lloyd's excess policies) provide Hughes insurance coverage for "occurrences which oсcur during the policy period anywhere." However, with respect to bodily injury coverage, the word "occurrence" is not defined. The district court concluded that an "occurrence" could happen only if the Valenzuela claimants were injured during the policy period. Therefore, Hughes' act of dumping TCE was not an "occurrence" by itself; someone had to be injured first. We agree.
The general rule in California is that
[t]he insurer's obligation to pay is ordinarily triggered when the insurеd is liable to a third party for injuries or damages caused by an "occurrence" or "accident," and the time of the "occurrence" is "not the time the wrongful act was committed, but the time the complaining party was actually damaged."
Chu v. Canadian Indem. Co.,
In Sam Harris, the court found coverage even thоugh the complaining party was injured outside the policy period. The court departed from the general rule because it found that the policy phrase "occurrences or accidents" was ambiguous where neither "occurrence" nor "accident" was defined in the policy. Id.
b. The District Court Erred in Ruling that the Valenzuela Injuries Occurred after the Pre-1971 Policies Expired.
In concluding that no Valenzuela claimant was injured during the relevant policy periods, the district court relied on expert evidence that Hughes had developed to defend itself in the underlying Valenzuela tort action. These experts plotted the underground TCE contamination from Hughes' ponds to Tucsоn drinking water wells. They concluded that contaminants moved too slowly to affect all but one of the wells before the policies terminated in 1971. They further concluded that no harm was caused by the contaminated well because that water was mixed with uncontaminated water and was thus rendered harmless during the policy period.
However, Hughes offered expert evidence that was developed by the Valenzuela claimants. These experts concluded that Tucson's municipal wells were contaminated with TCE from Hughes' property beginning no later than 1956. They also concluded that any level of TCE is harmful and causes bodily injury. The district court refused to hear this testimony because Hughes had failed to "designate" these experts before a discovery deadline. The district court also found that the evidence, even if it were timely presented, was not as credible as the experts Hughes had previоusly retained.
We review for an abuse of discretion the district court's discovery rulings. United States v. Bourgeois,
AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part; and REMANDED. Each party shall bear its own costs on appeal.
Notes
Hon. Thomas E. Fairchild, Senior United States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit, sitting by designation
This policy does not cover claims directly or indirectly occasioned by happening through or in consequence of:
(a) noise (whether audible to human ear or not), vibration, sonic boom and any phenomena associated therewith,
(b) pollution and contamination of any kind whatsoever,
(c) electrical and electromagnetic interference,
(d) interference with the use of property;
unless caused by a crash, explosion or collisiоn or a recorded in-flight emergency causing abnormal aircraft operation.
The district court determined that California law applies to the interpretation of INA's policies. However, the district court did not determine what law applied to the policies of the other insurers, but instead applied both Arizona and California law. We do not decide which law applies to the other insurers' policies because both states' laws yiеld the same results
The "pollution exclusion" states that the insurance does not apply
(f) to bodily injury or property damage arising out of the discharge, dispersal, release or escape of smoke, vapors, soot, fumes, acids, alkalis, toxic chemicals, liquids or gases, waste materials or other irritants, contaminants or pollutants into or upon land, the atmosphere or any water course or body of water; but this exclusion shall not aрply if such discharge, dispersal, release or escape is sudden and accidental.
(Emphasis added.)
Because we agree that the depositions for which Hartford seeks reimbursement were "necessarily obtained," we do not consider whether Hughes' Rule 54(d) motion was timely
The district court did not decide whether California or Arizona law applies to Lloyd's excess policies. However, the district court concluded that California law applies to INA's underlying primary CGL policies, for which Lloyd's excess policies "follow-form." Accordingly, we apply California law to both INA's and Lloyd's pre-1971 policies
