Zurich Unit Beats Ken’s Foods Over Pollution Cleanup Coverage

A Massachusetts food manufacturer lost a bid to have a Zurich Insurance Group unit cover wastewater cleanup costs when the state’s highest court found that the cleanup didn’t interrupt the company’s operations.

Ken’s Foods Inc.’s $2 million cost of cleaning pollution and preventing further wastewater discharge from one of its processing plants is not covered by its Steadfast Insurance Co. policy because the manufacturer never shut down operations, Justice Scott L. Kafker of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said Friday.

The insurance policy only covers a “partial or complete shutdown” of business, which never happened at the Ken’s Foods facility, ...