The appellant insurer sought a declaration that it had no duty to defend or indemnify the respondent insured, a gas bar operator, against a claim for environmental contamination caused by a gasoline leak.
The application judge dismissed the application, finding the insured was not an 'active industrial polluter' and the claim sounded in negligence.
The Court of Appeal allowed the insurer's appeal, holding that the pollution exclusion clause unambiguously applied to the known risk of pollution from operating a gas station, and was not limited to active industrial polluters.
