The Gases and Welding Distributors Association (GAWDA) will ask a federal court permission to intervene in a case that could determine whether insurers must cover potential liability from welding fume claims. The case is U.S. Fire Insurance Co. v. Clendenin Brothers Inc., No. 1:03-cv-03308, U.S. District Court, Baltimore. Clendenin is commonly owned and insured with Gulf Wire, a member or GAWDA, and Nichols Wire, manufacturers of welding wire and other consumable products. These companies have been sued by more than 2,000 individual plaintiffs in welding-fume lawsuits in Louisiana and elsewhere. As a result, one of the company's insurers, U.S. Fire Insurance Co., denied coverage under the "pollution exclusion" in the liability insurance policy.
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