An insurer wants out. Republic Franklin has asked a federal judge to rule it owes nothing to a school district facing a stormwater lawsuit.
Republic Franklin Insurance Company filed for declaratory judgment on August 6, 2026, in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. It is asking the court to declare it has no duty to defend or cover Millcreek Township School District in a long-running case in Erie County, Pennsylvania.
That underlying suit dates to 2013. According to Republic Franklin's filing, a landowner trust alleges the district ran a pipe that pushes stormwater from school grounds onto the trust's land. The filing says the trust claims the runoff caused "continuing injury, including, inter alia, sedimentation, pollution, and erosion." The trust wants the pipe removed and an alleged easement voided.
Republic Franklin's argument is straightforward: its commercial general liability policy does not reach this fight. The complaint gives several reasons, each tied to specific policy wording.
Start with what the trust is asking for. It wants an easement voided, the stormwater stopped and the pipe pulled out. Republic Franklin argues none of that counts as "bodily injury," "property damage," or "personal and advertising injury" as the policy defines those terms. No covered injury, the carrier says, means no coverage.
Then there is the pollution exclusion. The policy says it does not apply to property damage "arising out of the actual, alleged or threatened discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release or escape of 'pollutants'" — a term the policy defines broadly as "any solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or contaminant." Because the trust alleges "erosion, sedimentation and pollution" from the stormwater, the carrier says the exclusion applies.
Republic Franklin also points to the damage-to-property and "your work" exclusions. The trust wants Millcreek to pay to remove the pipe the district installed itself. The carrier argues the policy does not cover the cost of pulling out and restoring the insured's own work.
Timing is another sticking point. The policy is written on an "occurrence" basis, so covered damage has to fall inside a policy period. Republic Franklin notes the trust says the pipe went in in 1992 and that the trust acquired the land in 1998. The carrier also argues trespass is not an "accident," and so is not an "occurrence" under the policy at all.
For claims professionals, the filing is a compact look at how a carrier stacks coverage defenses in a single declaratory action, leaning on the pollution exclusion, the meaning of "occurrence," and the "your work" carve-out at the same time rather than resting on any one of them.
The allegations in both the coverage action and the underlying case are untested, and no court has ruled on whether the policy covers the dispute.
