The Missouri Supreme Court dealt Doe Run a legal setback Tuesday as the mining and minerals firm continues to defend lawsuits related to pollution from a Peruvian complex once owned by a sister company.
Tuesday’s decision caps five years of , over a pollution exclusion within the company’s insurance policy.
The Supreme Court reversed a ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Circuit Court decision that said a pollution exclusion within the insurance policy was ambiguous and unenforceable; the upper court instead sided with the insurer and overturned a $2.1 million judgment in favor of Doe Run.
The insurance disputes arose after dozens of plaintiffs living near , filed suit against Doe Run, accusing the company of harming them with toxic lead emissions, among other pollutants. Although since creditors took it over following the 2009 bankruptcy of Doe Run sister company Doe Run Peru, the lawsuits are still pending.
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Doe Run argued that lead was not a pollutant under the policy’s exclusion because it is sometimes a product and an insured company “would not construe the policy to exclude the very business operations for which it purchased the coverage.â€
But the court disagreed, siding with St. Paul that lead, in its particulate form, meets the basic definition of a pollutant and that none of the lawsuits against Doe Run alleged harm from the company’s commercial products.
A representative for Doe Run did not respond to a request for comment.
Maryland Heights-based Doe Run, owned by New York tycoon Ira Rennert’s Renco Group, faced similar lawsuits from those living by its former lead smelter in Herculaneum, which was the last primary lead smelter in the U.S. .