Legal Definitions - injury-in-fact trigger

The injury-in-fact trigger is a legal principle, predominantly applied in insurance law, that determines when an insurance policy's coverage is activated. Under this principle, a policy is "triggered" and becomes responsible for a claim at the precise moment that actual damage or harm physically occurs, regardless of when the wrongful act causing the harm took place or when the damage was discovered. It focuses on the occurrence of the injury itself.

Here are some examples illustrating the injury-in-fact trigger:

• Gradual Environmental Contamination

  Scenario: A chemical plant operates from 1970 to 1990, slowly leaking hazardous waste into the soil. This leakage gradually contaminates the underlying groundwater, with the actual pollution of the water occurring progressively throughout the 1980s, though it isn't discovered until 2005.

  Explanation: An "injury-in-fact trigger" would mean that all insurance policies held by the plant during the years the groundwater was actually being contaminated (e.g., from 1980 to 1990) would be activated. Each policy would be responsible for the portion of the environmental damage that occurred during its specific policy period, even though the initial leak started earlier and the full extent of the problem wasn't known until much later.

• Latent Construction Defect

  Scenario: A commercial building is completed in 2010. Due to a hidden flaw in the roofing material, water slowly begins to seep into the structure, causing mold growth and wood rot that starts in 2012 but remains concealed behind walls until it's discovered during a renovation in 2017.

  Explanation: Under an "injury-in-fact trigger," the insurance policies covering the building owner or contractor from 2012 onwards (when the mold and rot actually began to develop) would be triggered. Even though the faulty material was installed in 2010 and the damage wasn't visible until 2017, the actual "injury" (the progressive mold growth and decay) commenced in 2012, thereby activating the policies in effect during that period.

• Progressive Product Failure

  Scenario: A manufacturer sells a batch of industrial pumps in 2018. A design defect causes excessive internal pressure, which gradually weakens a critical seal over time. This weakening leads to micro-fissures developing from 2019 to 2021, eventually causing the pumps to catastrophically fail in late 2021.

  Explanation: With an "injury-in-fact trigger," the product liability insurance policies held by the manufacturer from 2019 through 2021 would be activated. This is because the actual "injury"—the progressive weakening and micro-fissuring of the seal—occurred during those years. The policies in effect when the physical damage was actually taking place would be responsible, rather than just the policy from the year of manufacture or the year of final failure.