Opinion ID: 2094157
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the Alleged Property Damage was Caused by Accident.

Text: In seeking to overturn the ruling of the district court on the policies in effect for the years 1946 to 1961, Interstate asserts that the district court improperly focused on whether there had been a causative event during the policy period that qualified as an accident. It argues that based on the language of the policy any accidental property damage during the policy period triggered coverage regardless of when and how the subsequent contamination took place. This assertion is designed to controvert temporal considerations contained in the district court's ruling. We believe, however, that it is not necessary to decide the motion for summary judgment based on temporal considerations. What happened here simply does not constitute an accident at any point in time. The controlling consideration in interpreting insurance policies is the intent of the parties. Iowa Comprehensive Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Fund Bd. v. Farmland Mut. Ins. Co., 568 N.W.2d 815, 818 (Iowa 1997); Pierce v. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co., 548 N.W.2d 551, 555 (Iowa 1996). We ordinarily determine that intent from the language of the policy itself unless the policy is ambiguous. Farmland Mut., 568 N.W.2d at 818; Kibbee v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 525 N.W.2d 866, 868 (Iowa 1994). When a policy term is not defined in the policy as in this case, we give the term its ordinary meaning. Pierce, 548 N.W.2d at 555. The critical policy language in the present case provides: I. Coverage. The company hereby agrees to indemnify the insured [against].... .... (b) Property Damage Liability. For damages because of injury to or destruction of property, including the loss thereof, caused by accident. (Emphasis added.) The policy language clearly focuses on the cause of the damage rather than the damage itself and requires that the cause be of accidental origin. In Dico, Inc. v. Employers Insurance of Wausau, 581 N.W.2d 607, 613 (Iowa 1998), we suggested (based on language in Farmland Mutual, 568 N.W.2d at 819) that ground contamination, occurring over a period of time, falls outside the definition of `accident.' The policy provisions in both the Dico, Inc. and Farmland Mutual cases differ substantially from those involved in the present litigation. Notwithstanding these differences, we accept as a general principle that ground contamination occurring over a period of time from a natural seeping process is not accidental when the sources of the contamination are manufacturing waste allowed to accumulate on or in the earth over a period of several decades. We find no error in the district court's granting of summary judgment for INA for the policy years 1946-1961.