Following Pennsylvania law, the Fourth Circuit found one occurrence in a fireworks accident despite allegations of 19 breaches of duty. Hollis v. Lexington Ins. Co., 2017 U.S. App LEXIS 5088 (4th Cir. March 22, 2017).
Kathryn Hollis and her two sons received injuries from a fireworks explosion. The underlying action alleged that the fireworks company committed 19 breaches of duty resulting in the injuries.
In the declaratory relief action, the issue was whether the underlying complaint alleged a single occurrence or 19 occurrences under the policy with Lexington. The district court granted summary judgment to the insurer, determining that the underlying complaint alleged one occurrence.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed. Pennsylvania applied a cause approach to defining occurrences. Under the cause approach, Pennsylvania courts found a single occurrence if there was but one proximate, uninterrupted, and continuing cause which resulted in all of the injuries and damage. Here, regardless of the number of alleged negligent acts or victims, the injuries had a single proximate cause - the misfired firework that exploded near Kathryn and her sons. Because the injuries only had one cause, there was a single occurrence.
