Opinion ID: 2062885
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Judicial Treatment of the Pollution-Exclusion Clause.

Text: The abundance of federal- and state-court decisions addressing the pollution-exclusion clause confirms that an enormous outpouring of judicial energy already has been expended in attempting to fathom how this exclusion should be interpreted. Although categorizing the various judicial approaches may appear superficially to be helpful, caution is essential because the factual circumstances often diminish the significance of a court's ruling. A Florida federal judge made the point colorfully: This court recognizes that there is a plethora of authority from jurisdictions throughout the United States which, depending on the facts presented and the allegations of the underlying complaints, go both ways on the issues presented today. The cases swim the reporters like fish in a lake. The Defendants would have this Court pull up its line with a trout on the hook, and argue that the lake is full of trout only, when in fact the water is full of bass, salmon and sunfish too.