Appeal from a solicitor's negligence judgment arising out of two insurance litigation files handled for an insurer.
In the Little matter, the court upheld the finding that counsel negligently failed to alert the insurer to a coverage issue revealed on discovery and that, but for that failure, the insurer would likely have denied errors and omissions coverage based on material non-disclosure in the insurance application.
In the Uniroyal matter, the court held that the trial judge erred in interpreting pollution exclusion wording as clearly excluding groundwater contamination under a 1987 umbrella policy, with the result that the insurer still had a duty to defend and suffered no compensable loss from counsel's conduct.
The appeal was therefore dismissed in part and allowed in part, with a later addendum awarding the appellant trial costs of the Uniroyal matter.
