The State - News from Dec. 13, 1988

A San Mateo County Superior Court jury has begun deliberations in Shell Oil Co.’s suit to force its insurance companies to pay claims for toxic waste damage at a Colorado Army installation. The 12-member jury must decide whether Shell or more than 200 insurers are liable for the oil giant’s share of cleanup costs estimated to run into billions of dollars at Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver. The insurance companies argued that they shouldn’t have to pay the claims because damages from seeping chemicals was not accidental but occurred gradually between 1952 and 1982 with Shell’s knowledge. They are relying on a 1969 provision in Shell’s policies that excludes the insurance companies from having to pay for gradually occurring damages that were expected or intended. The oil company argued that there was no evidence it knew before 1979 that poisonous chemicals dumped into earthen pits were contaminating soil or ground water.