Opinion ID: 1312473
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The sudden and accidental exception.

Text: The pollution exclusion does not apply if such discharge, dispersal, release or escape is sudden and accidental. The Regents argue that the gradual release of asbestos fibers into the interior space of its buildings over a period of some 20 years was sudden, and, therefore, the exception to the pollution exclusion applies. And, indeed, the Regents cite respectable authority for the proposition that sudden means unexpected, and then point out that the release of the asbestos fibers was unexpected. See, e.g., Just v. Land Reclamation, Ltd., 155 Wis.2d 737, 157 Wis.2d 507, 456 N.W.2d 570, 573 (1990); Morton Int'l, Inc. v. General Accident Ins. Co. of America, 629 A.2d 831, 870 (N.J.1993). Other equally respectable authority holds that sudden has a temporal connotation, and means something that happens abruptly. See, e.g., Lumbermens Mut. Casualty Co. v. Belleville Indus., 407 Mass. 675, 555 N.E.2d 568, 572 (1990). We note, also, that two panels of our court of appeals have differed on the issue. Compare Grinnell, 432 N.W.2d at 499 (construing sudden to mean unexpected or unintended) with Sylvester Bros. Dev. Co. v. Great Cent. Ins. Co., 480 N.W.2d 368, 375-76 (Minn.App.) (sudden means abrupt), pet. for rev. denied (Minn., Mar. 26, 1992). Because a word has more than one meaning does not mean it is ambiguous. The sense of a word depends on how it is being used; only if more than one meaning applies within that context does ambiguity arise. Here sudden and accidental modifies discharge, [etc.]. It refers not to the placement of waste in a particular place but to the discharge or escape of the waste from that place. The word sudden is used in tandem with the word accidental, and accidental in liability insurance parlance means unexpected or unintended, Bituminous Casualty Corp. v. Bartlett, 307 Minn. 72, 76-77, 240 N.W.2d 310, 312-13 (1976), overruled in part on other grounds, Prahm v. Rupp Constr. Co., 277 N.W.2d 389, 391 (Minn.1979); thus to construe sudden to mean unexpected is to create a redundancy. It seems incongruous, too, to think of a leakage or seepage that occurs over many years as happening suddenly. We have no difficulty concluding, in the context here used, that the term sudden is used to indicate the opposite of gradual. Consequently, we hold that the sudden and accidental exception to the pollution exclusion does not apply to asbestos fibers released gradually over time from the insured's product.