Court Finds Prior Insurance Releases Inapplicable to Motorola’s ‘Clean Room’ Litigation

CHICAGO — An Illinois judge has ruled that 2003 releases entered into by Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI) and two insurers to resolve environmental coverage claims do not bar potential coverage for birth defect claims by children of employees in the company’s semiconductor manufacturing facilities.

Cook County (Ill.) Circuit Court Judge Daniel J. Pierce ruled Jan. 31 that there was no evidence that either Motorola or defendants Fireman’s Fund or Zurich Insurance Co. intended their 2003 releases of environmental claims in Arizona to apply to “clean room” claims that had not yet arisen.

Motorola argued in a February 2011 …