First Circuit Affirms Insurance Coverage for Heating Oil Suit

Federated Mutual Insurance Co. must cover a heating oil company’s defense costs in a class action alleging it sold substandard home heating oil, a federal appeals court ruled.

“Because not all of the claims asserted in the underlying action lie expressly outside of the policy’s coverage, the district court rightly determined that Federated has a duty to defend the state action” against Peterson’s Oil Service Inc., the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said in a Monday opinion.

Federated sued Peterson’s and several of the underlying plaintiffs in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts in ...