Court Opinion

ID: 9687336
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:25:27.725568+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:26.252456
License: Public Domain

STRINGER, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I concur with the holding of the majority that the Frye-Mack reliability standard was met with respect to the Kellogg Square building and that direct physical loss was demonstrated to trigger coverage, but I respectfully disagree with and dissent from the court’s holding that the manifestation trigger standard can be met with respect to the remaining ten buildings in the absence of testing.
*829There is coverage under the manifestation trigger standard when appreciable damage occurred during the policy period and the damage was or should have been known to the insured. See Sentinel Management Co. v. Aetna Cas. and Surety, Nos. C2-98-2304, CX-98-2373, 1999 WL 540466, slip op. at 7-8 (Minn.App. July 27, 1999) (Sentinel II). What the majority fails to recognize is that appreciable damage can only be demonstrated by proving that the buildings were contaminated during the policy period, and contamination can only be proven by expert opinion, admissible because it meets the Frye-Mack reliability standard.
The Frye-Mack two-prong standard requires, first, that the scientific technique or principle must be generally accepted within the scientific community and, second, that its foundation must be reliable. See Goeb v. Tharaldson, 615 N.W.2d 800, 814-15 (Minn.2000); see also State v. Moore, 458 N.W.2d 90, 97 (Minn.1990). In Moore we further held as to scientific testing that “[a] proper foundation for a scientific test requires the ‘proponent of a * * * test [to] establish that the test itself is reliable and that its administration in the particular instance conformed to the procedure necessary to ensure reliability!,]’ ” and that the reliability of a particular test or technique in a given case must be demonstrated. Moore, 458 N.W.2d at 98 (quoting State v. Dille, 258 N.W.2d 565, 567 (Minn.1977)).
Sentinel presented no evidence of scientific testing in the remaining ten buildings. It relied on samples from Kellogg Square indicative of asbestos contamination and piggy-backed the sample testing at Kellogg Square on evidence that ACM’s, as well as maintenance activities that disturb ACM’s and cause the release of asbestos fibers, were present in the remaining ten buildings. But this is all Sentinel proved with respect to the other buildings. There was no evidence to meet even the requirement of Sentinel’s own scientific expert that the “only way to definitely establish that asbestos is present in a * * * sample-of dust is to perform a microscopic analysis of [the] material * * Sentinel II, 1999 WL 540466, slip op. at 9. Sentinel’s expert stated the obvious-that without evidence to conclude asbestos is present through microscopic testing of samples, differences in the nature of the material or construction could result in wide variations in the asbestos suspension-for example the composition of the wall and ceiling materials in each building may be different, affecting the characteristics of suspension of asbestos in the dust particles. But without testing a conclusion that asbestos is present is pure speculation, and thus proof of appreciable damage and manifestation fails.
Beyond the holding here however, by its ruling that testing of the other buildings is not required, the majority dilutes to the point of near meaninglessness the Frye-Mack standard requiring that the scientific testing be reliable and “in the particular instance” conform to reliable procedures. In one fell swoop the majority allows the issue of appreciable damage to proceed to trial and rules that the Frye-Mack reliability standard is satisfied as to Hatfield’s testimony. The majority leapfrogs over the Frye-Mack analysis in its rush to conclude that there was appreciable damage in the form of asbestos contamination. Making the leap that the Frye-Mack reliability standard is met with respect to ten separate buildings in the absence of testing of any of those buildings guts the Frye-Mack analysis and I can only assume that the majority would now reach the same conclusion with respect to any building where the “Kellogg Square formula”(presence of asbestos) + (routine maintenance activities) = (contaminated building)-is met.
In the absence of meeting even minimal Frye-Mack requirements of reliable testing, the manifestation trigger standard cannot be reached. I would affirm the conclusion of both the district court and court of appeals that the evidence present*830ed by Sentinel does not satisfy the manifestation trigger standard.