Liberty Mutual Sues Magnet Maker Over Illinois Pollution Claims

Liability insurance policies issued to a magnet maker’s former corporate parents in the 1970s and 1980s don’t cover pollution claims stemming from operations at an Illinois plant, Liberty Mutual said in a lawsuit.

The suits against Arnold Engineering Co. by the Illinois attorney general on behalf of the state’s Environmental Protection Agency and by nearby property owners alleging groundwater contamination trigger the pollution exclusion in its commercial general liability policies, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. said in its complaint filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Pollution coverage under historic commercial general liability policies is ...