American Motorists Ins. Co. v. ARTRA Group, Inc.
Maryland Court of Appeals
338 Md. 560, 659 A.2d 1295 (1995)
- Written by Steven Gladis, JD
Facts
American Motorists Insurance Company (American Motorists) (plaintiff) filed suit seeking a declaratory judgment that insurance policies it had issued covering a paint-manufacturing facility owned by ARTRA Group, Inc. (defendant) did not provide coverage for soil and groundwater contamination. American Motorists and ARTRA Group are both Illinois corporations, and the insurance policies were issued in Illinois. However, the facility they covered was located in Maryland, and American Motorists filed suit in Maryland. ARTRA Group argued that, under the law of the place of the contract, Illinois substantive law, which provided coverage for the contamination, should control. American Motorists argued that a Maryland court should look to all of Illinois law, including its conflict-of-law rules, to determine whether Illinois would apply Maryland law, which did not provide coverage. The trial court adopted American Motorists’ approach and granted summary judgment in favor of American Motorists. The intermediate appellate court reversed, holding that the case was controlled only by Illinois’s substantive law and not its choice-of-law principles.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Chasanow, J.)
Dissent (Raker, J.)
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