A September 2025 decision in a Massachusetts Appeal Court found that an “occurrence” connotes a relatively concrete, timebound quality. The insured company supplied defective oil to customers over a long period of time which led to damage to the customers’ heating equipment and a class action.
There was no cover unless the insured knew that
A Texas district court held that 124 claims for food poisoning from salmonella bacteria suffered by patrons at a restaurant was one ‘occurrence’ within the terms of the restaurant’s insurance policy. An occurrence was defined as ‘an accident including continuous or repeated exposure to the same general harmful conditions’.
An occurrence was ‘an accident’ and
The test enunciated by the English court in Kuwait Airways Corporation v Kuwait Insurance Co [1996] 1 Lloyds Rep 664, confirmed in Mann and Another v Lexington Insurance Company [2000] is no different in South African law.
“An ‘occurrence’ (which is not materially different from an event or happening, unless perchance the contractual context requires
The Housing Authority of Somerset, US was liable for failing to maintain an area where a tree fell on three victims and the jury award was $3.7 million. The insurance policy limited coverage to $1 million for each ‘occurrence’. It was held that this was one occurrence.
The tree fell on two cousins, one of
The US Appeal Court in Iowa held that manufactured plastic bags that deteriorated in sunlight because of the absence of an ultraviolet inhibitor and caused small shreds of plastic to commingle with a customer’s landscaping materials requiring clean-up was an accident and therefore an occurrence under their comprehensive general liability policy.
The policy provided coverage