
If you're a California contractor, understanding environmental issues is a vital part of general liability insurance.
The case involved the Villa Los Alamos Homeowners Association (VLAHA); Cal Coast Construction (CCC), a firm the VLAHA had hired to do property maintenance work; and State Farm, the VLAHA’s insurer.
In a residential building that the VLAHA operated and managed, CCC scraped the acoustical ceilings and stairways, causing “asbestos fibers to be released into the air, individual units, and the building’s indoor and outdoor common areas.” As a result, “a local environmental agency ordered the association to perform comprehensive cleanup of the building.” The total cost came to $650,000.
The VLAHA complied, but asked State Farm to cover expenses. The insurer refused, citing a pollution exclusion in the VLAHA’s policy “which covered both first party robbery losses and third-party business liability claims.”
The association won a negligence suit against the CCC and was awarded $600,000. But it lost another suit it filed against State Farm for “breach of contract and bad faith.” VLAHA argued that “a one-time ordinary act of negligence failed to constitute environmental pollution.”
The California Supreme Court ruled that State Farm was within its rights to refuse payment because the work CCC had done for VLAHA “occurred over several days and resulted in sufficient release of asbestos fibers into the air contaminate the building complex in the adjacent outside areas, constituting environmental pollution.”


For California contractors insurance can seem like an unnecessary expense to several people. That’s a myth of huge proportions.
For CA contractors insurance deals the errors and truths of life. Stuff and nonsense happens. There’s no bypassing that fact. Companies crash every year when hit with lawsuits and claims from distressed clients. Insurance is there for the protection of everyone involved. It allows the business to carry on going ahead.
For the best CA contractors insurance is a business enterprise investiture. Anywhere in the Golden State, increasingly customers won’t engage contractors that lack proper certifying. It is a safety measure for everybody.
When purchasing contractors insurance, a common mistake many make is looking for agents that work with a single company. That is no way to get the best policy for the best value.