subject: Insurance Issues - Contamination - Part III [print this page] All of the goods stored in the room became unfit for human consumption as a result of contamination from the ammonia. The ARPI policy excluded contamination unless caused by or resulting from loss of or to the property covered by explosion. It was argued that the contamination was caused by an explosion and the court adopted an earlier approved definition of explosion, namely u...a sudden, accidental, violent, bursting, breaking or expansion caused by internal force or pressure which may be and usually is accompanied by some noise". The court found that there was no proof that the pressure within the coils was the cause of the escape of the ammonia.
The policy defined contamination as "... a condition of impurity resulting from a mixture or contact with a foreign substance..." which the court found was consistent with the definition in Webster's New International Dictionary* In this case the goods had been contaminated by ammonia gas and an explosion had not occurred.
The definition of contamination in the Oxford English Dictionary is "... to render impure by contact or mixtureto corrupt, defile, pollute, sully, taint or infect".
In the case of HUG Incorporated v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company, 391 F2d Series, 924 (1968), electro mechanical relays were being subjected to heat and a vacuum inside an oven in preparation for the introduction of a preservative gas when they became contaminated by oil vapour which had entered the oven. As a result the internal and external surfaces of the relays became coated with an oil film which proved to be unremovable. The relevant clause excluded damage caused by "loss or damage caused by or resulting from dampness of atmosphere, dryness of atmosphere* extremes of changes of temperature, shrinkage, evaporation, loss of weight, rust, contamination^ change of flavour or colour or texture or finish, unless such loss or damage is caused directly by fire and lightning etc".
Insurance Issues - Contamination - Part III
By: Willis J. Watson
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