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In the

Indiana Supreme Court
No. 49S02-0712-CV-596 TRAVELERS CASUALTY AND SURETY COMPANY, ET AL.,

FILED
Oct 15 2008, 3:09 pm
of the supreme court, court of appeals and tax court

CLERK

Appellants (Defendants below), v. UNITED STATES FILTER CORPORATION N/K/A WATER APPLICATIONS & SYSTEMS CORPORATION, U.S. FILTER SURFACE PREPARATION GROUP INC. N/K/A INTERNATIONAL SURFACE PREPARATION GROUP, INC., WHEELABRATOR TECHNOLOGIES INC., WASTE MANAGEMENT HOLDINGS, INC. AND RESCO HOLDINGS, L.L.C., Appellees (Plaintiffs below).

Interlocutory Appeal from the Marion Superior Court No. 1, No. 49D01-0409-PL-1745 The Honorable Cale Bradford, Judge

On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-0604-CV-289

October 15, 2008 Shepard, Chief Justice.

Five corporations seek insurance coverage from insurers who issued liability policies for their predecessors. The underlying litigation involves bodily injury claims relating to the

operation of an industrial blast machine. The corporations say that coverage rights passed to them through the same corporate transactions that brought them the blast machine assets. The trial court agreed and granted summary judgment to the current holder of the assets.

Each of the implicated insurance policies contains a provision that bars assignment of the policy without the consent of the insurer. We hold that consent is required for any assignment of policy rights, unless the assignment occurs after an identifiable loss, in which case the right to receive payment on that claim may be transferred without consent. Because the corporations neither obtained consent nor made a post-loss assignment, we direct judgment for the insurers.

Facts and Procedural History

On June 18, 2004, appellees United States Filter Corp. and United States Filter Surface Preparation Group, Inc. (collectively "U.S. Filter") filed a complaint against numerous insurance companies (collectively "Insurers"), most of which remain as appellants, seeking defense and indemnification for underlying product liability claims. The underlying claims involve bodily injuries allegedly caused by the claimants' exposure to silica from working near the Wheelabrator blast machine.1 U.S. Filter sought coverage under several occurrence-based

comprehensive general liability (CGL) policies issued to its predecessors-in-interest.

Appellees Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc., Resco Holdings, L.L.C., and Waste Management Holdings, Inc. (collectively "Waste Management"), intervened on October 22, 2004, seeking defense and indemnity coverage for their own underlying Wheelabrator injury claims. U.S. Filter and Waste Management then jointly filed two amended complaints. The trial court and parties agreed to bifurcate the proceedings, limiting the initial phase to "determining whether the Plaintiffs have a right to seek insurance coverage or proceeds under each of the defendants' insurance policies" and deferring all other issues until a later phase of the litigation. (Waste Mgmt. App. at 1-2.)
1

The Wheelabrator blast machine is an airless blast machine, developed to mechanically clean pieces of metal in a way that, relative to traditional sandblasting methods, dramatically reduces the use of manpower and the release of silica into the work environment. The machine operates by use of a wheel with flanges that hurls `shot' at the molded metal. The shot removes sand

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Indiana Law