BatesCarey attorneys Adam H. Fleischer, Mark A. Deptula and Kristin M. Johnson Holevas filed an amicus curiae brief to the Illinois Supreme Court on behalf of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Elite Insurance Corporation, seeking to overturn 15 years of legal precedent which held that a policyholder’s emissions, if released pursuant to regulatory permits, do not constitute “pollution” in Illinois and the resulting liability was therefore outside of an insurer’s pollution exclusion.

In Griffith Foods International v. National Union, et al., Case No. 131710 (Ill. Sup. Jan. 23, 2026), the Illinois Supreme Court overruled the underlying appellate precedent and found that whether polluting emissions were authorized by a regulatory permit no longer has any relevance in assessing the pollution exclusion in Illinois.

The underlying matter involved residents of Willowbrook, Illinois, who sued Griffith Foods and Sterigenics U.S., alleging cancer and other serious diseases caused by more than 35 years of ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from their medical-equipment sterilization facility. The policyholders seek to recover from their insurers the over $450 million paid to settle the underlying EtO exposure claims.

Click here for the opinion.