Insurer sues to limit liability exposure

A Pennsylvania insurer, American Casualty Company, has sued 15 families who have claimed injuries resulting from negligence at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.  The Endoscopy Center allegedly exposed more than 63,000 patients to hepatitis C by re-using anesthesia equipment, and apparently about 300 patients have developed the disease.  American Casualty insured the pharmacist and her consulting group that helped the Endoscopy Center develop its protocols for ordering, supplying, dispensing or administering anesthesia at the Center, with limits of $1 million dollars per claim up to several million dollars in the aggregate. 

American Casualty is arguing that since all of the claims relate to the pharmacist's error in devising the Endoscopy Center's protocols, its coverage should be interpreted to limit to $1 milllion dollars---as a single "claim"---all of the damages resulting.  The families will argue that the language supports an interpretation that the coverage provides $1 million dollars in coverage for each of the 15 injury "claims" up to the 3-6 million dollar aggregate cap.