Powerine Oil Co., Inc. v. Superior Court

Introduction

Powerine Oil Company (Powerine), a now defunct oil refinery, faces liability for certain govemmentally imposed cleanup and abatement orders requiring it to remediate soil and groundwater pollution resulting from its past refinery operations at various locations. In Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London v. Superior Court (2001) 24 Cal.4th 945 [ 103 Cal.Rptr.2d 672 , 16 P.3d 94 ] (Powerine I), an earlier writ proceeding in the instant case, we held that the insurer’s duty to indemnify Powerine, the insured, for “ ‘all sums that the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages’ ” under the wording of the standard comprehensive general liability (CGL) insurance policy is limited to “money ordered by a court,” and does not extend to environmental cleanup costs ordered by an administrative agency pursuant to an environmental statute. (Id. at p. 960.) This conclusion flowed logically both from the literal language of the standard CGL policy, which provides coverage for court-ordered “damages,” and from our earlier decision in Foster-Gardner, Inc. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co. (1998) 18 Cal.4th 857 [ 77 Cal.Rptr.2d 107 , 959 P.2d 265 ] (Foster-Gardner),…