Blood is Not Excluded Pollutant, Florida High Court Says by Declining to Hear Case

The Florida Supreme Court this week declined to hear an appeal from Florida Farm Bureau General Insurance. The move essentially upholds a lower court that cut down the insurer’s argument that a burglar’s blood and fecal matter are not covered by a homeowner’s policy.

Farm Bureau, which stopped writing new HO business in Florida last year, had pressed the $4,100 claim all the way to the high court, contending that the homeowner’s policy exclusion barred coverage for damage from pollution, and blood and feces from an injured burglar should have been considered pollutants.

The county court in Marion County in 2020 ruled against the insurer, as did Florida’s 5^th District Court of Appeal in April of this year.

“A fair reading of the exclusion provision leads us to conclude that the blood left at the Worrells’ residence by Anton’s unlawful entrance onto their property is not a ‘pollutant’ as defined by the policy’s exclusion provision,” the 5^th DCA opinion reads.

The case stemmed from an incident at John and Joyce Worrell’s Ocala home in January 2020. The burglar, Laurance Anton, “while intoxicated and apparently injured,” broke into Worrells’ shed and left his fluids behind. He was later found dead outside a neighbor’s house, the appellate court explained.

Medical examiners ruled that Anton’s cause of death was blunt head trauma from a fall, and the manner of death was an accident, according to a local news report at the time. Anton, who lived nearby, had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit.

The Worrells hired Accident Cleaners and Restoration to clean the shed, and they assigned benefits to the firm. The cleaning company then filed a claim with Farm Bureau, which denied it, citing the pollution exclusion. The family filed suit and the county court entered a summary judgment in the Worrells’ favor, for $4,104, plus interest, attorney’s fees and costs.

The homeowner’s policy exclusion notes that the policy will not cover losses caused by: “Discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release or escape of pollutants unless the discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release or escape is itself caused by a Peril Insured Against under Coverage C of this policy.”

“Pollutants” means any solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or contaminant, including smoke, vapor, soot, fumes, acids, alkalis, chemicals and waste. Waste includes materials to be recycled, reconditioned or reclaimed, the policy reads.

The appellate judges held that the exclusion was clearly worded, but blood does not meet the definition of a pollutant or a waste product. Very similar policy language was declared unambiguous by a 1998 Florida Supreme Court decision, Deni Associates vs. State Farm Fire & Casualty Insurance, the court noted.

The fecal matter also was not excluded in the Worrell policy.

“Since we have determined blood is not a pollutant that would be excluded from the policy’s coverage—and that, as a result, the policy covers the restoration services secured by the Worrells — it is unnecessary to reach the same question as to the fecal matter,” 5DCA Judge Adrian Soud wrote. “The fecal matter, at most, is a concurrent cause of loss to the Worrells. The policy does not contain any language limiting the concurrent cause doctrine’s application to the pollution exclusion provision.”

The Worrells were represented by attorney Mark Nation. Virgil Wright and Julie Ogelsby represented Farm Bureau.

Topics Florida