Insurance company sues to drop RES w/ Complaint for Declaratory Judgment

By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

An insurance company for a rendering plant that is alleged to be at the center of what literally has been a big stink in Carthage has had enough.

Select Insurance Co. has filed a federal suit asking to be released from paying for the company’s legal defense in a class-action lawsuit.

Attorneys for the insurance company are also asking the court to rule that Select is not responsible for any expenses incurred by Renewable Environmental Solutions from the underlying suit. The plant’s manager, Donald Sanders, is also a co-defendant in the insurance company’s suit.

The documents, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, represent the second civil suit to be filed against the company within the past eight months.

Cynthia Sundy, of Carthage, filed the class-action lawsuit against RES, contending that odors from the plant are a nuisance and that the company has been negligent. The plant renders animal byproducts into fuel, oil and other products.

Sundy’s lawsuit is seeking damages and class-action status aimed at allowing other residents to make claims for damages.

That lawsuit was filed in June in Jasper County Circuit Court, then in July was transferred to federal court at the request of RES. The case was remanded to the local court in October.

An attorney for Select Insurance, Donna Vobornik, of the Chicago-based law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, declined comment on the suit when the Globe reached her by phone on Friday.

Glenna Watkins, a spokeswoman for RES, also declined to comment Friday.

Messages left with the attorneys for Cynthia Sundy and RES were not returned Friday. Efforts to reach Sundy at home were unsuccessful.

In their complaint, attorneys for the insurance company cite 37 reasons to declare no coverage for RES and Sanders, including that the policies exclude coverage for “bodily injury or property damage” which would not have occurred except for the “actual, alleged release or escape of pollutants.”

The suit continues that coverage is barred if the insured company or authorized employee failed to disclose that prior to the policy period, that bodily injury or property damage had occurred, in whole or in part.

According to court documents, the companies have been remanded to the court’s Early Assessment Program, whereby they will choose an approved third party to mediate and attempt to work out an agreement before a jury trial. No hearing has been scheduled, according to court records.