Absolute pollution exclusion ‘wobble’

A decision of the Louisiana supreme court in Doerr v Mobil Oil Co , overruling its own earlier opinion, held that the absolute pollution exclusion was not intended or designed to be read strictly to exclude coverage for all interactions with irritants or contaminants of any kind. Rather, the clause must be interpreted pursuant to its ‘general purpose’ of excluding coverage for environmental pollution. The Doerr class action suit arose from a discharge of hydrocarbons from a refinery into the Mississippi River and thence into a public water system.