Article ID: 6219040bc2fcbaa45fb848cd93e71d062bb79e1e12038b1a1857feb34bd11f89
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URL: https://www.businessinsurance.com/smucker-wins-salmonella-coverage-fight/
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Smucker wins salmonella coverage fight - Business Insurance Skip to content Register for free Search Search Log In Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Smucker wins salmonella coverage fight by Richard Sine Claims Disputes , General liability , Product Liability , Risk Management Ace , Chubb Jul 2, 2026 A Chubb unit lost a bid to limit its coverage obligations to the J.M. Smucker Company over a 2022 salmonella-tainted peanut butter recall, after a federal appeals court ruled the outbreak constituted a single occurrence rather than hundreds. In The J.M. Smucker Company v. Ace American Insurance Company , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, affirmed on Wednesday a district court ruling that Smucker need only satisfy a $250,000 retention under each of its 2021 and 2022 commercial general liability policies, rather than the $112.5 million Ace sought across 225 separate lots of contaminated product. The dispute centered on a 2022 recall of Jif peanut butter made at Smucker’s Lexington, Kentucky, plant, which triggered thousands of consumer injury and property damage claims, according to the ruling. Ace argued each consumer’s exposure to the tainted product was a distinct occurrence, aggregated by production lot under a policy endorsement, multiplying Smucker’s out-of-pocket exposure before coverage would kick in. The court disagreed, citing the policies’ own definition of occurrence, which covers an accident and any “continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions.” Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Eugene Siler explained that Ohio law requires examining the accident from the insured’s perspective, and that Smucker’s “alleged production errors exposed the claimants to ‘the same general harmful condition’” — the salmonella contamination itself, rather than each individual consumer’s decision to eat the product. By Ohio’s “cause test,” the number of occurrences is determined by reference to the cause of the damage or injury, not the number of individual claims, Judge Siler wrote. The court also found the endorsement’s lot-based language ambiguous, noting it never explicitly redefined “occurrence” and was open to more than one reasonable reading. Under Ohio law, ambiguous insurance provisions are construed against the insurer that drafted them. The panel cited a 2011 Delaware Supreme Court decision involving ConAgra Foods and contaminated peanut butter in support of its conclusion. Twenty-one people from 17 states were sickened due to the 2022 salmonella outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Four were hospitalized. In 2023, Orrville, Ohio-based Smucker reported $120 million in direct costs related to the recall, but it has not publicly reported losses due to the recall-related legal claims. Chubb did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 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