Contaminated Michigan Site’s Insurance Row Subject to Ohio Law

Ohio law applies in a discovery spat stemming from an insurance dispute between a Cleveland-area home and industrial goods manufacturer and Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. over cleanup of contaminated sites in Michigan, a divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

An appeals court correctly applied rules that Ohio uses to determine what state’s law applies in certain types of legal claims, Justice Jennifer Brunner wrote in an opinion for a 5-2 majority.

The state’s rules set out different choice-of-law procedures if claims are torts or contract disputes. While Travelers argued that the bad-faith claim it faces should be considered as ...