Exposure to Asbestos in Turbines in New York

In Appalachian Ins. Co. v. General Elec. Co., 8 NY3d 162, 173, 863 N.E.2d 994, 831 N.Y.S.2d 742 n3 (2007), the Court held that thousands of personal injury claims arising from exposure to asbestos in turbines arose from multiple occurrences. Applying the test, the Court found that the operative incident giving "rise to liability was each individual plaintiff's 'continuous or repeated exposure to asbestos'". (Id. at 173.) The Court then held that, even if the claims share a common cause (i.e., asbestos exposure due to the policyholder's "failure to warn"), the claims were still multiple occurrences because they "shared few, if any, commonalities, differing in terms of when and where exposure occurred, whether the exposure was prolonged and for how long, and whether one or more . . . sites was involved". (Id. at 174.)