A Wisconsin Senate Committee recently killed the anti-business all sums bill, a measure opposed by the American Insurance Association. The bill was aggressively advocated by paper companies, who were found by Wisconsin and U.S. officials to be responsible for the cleanup of decades of pollution along the Fox River, south of Green Bay.

If approved, the proposal would have removed the judiciary from its traditional role in deciding the allocation of damages among insurance companies. Instead, policyholders would be allowed to select one insurer and require it to pay all sums up to the policy limits. The cleanup, which already has started, is estimated to cost $500 million and take at least a decade to complete.

"The Senate is to be commended for taking a sound, principled stance against a very bad bill — one that would have rewritten decades-old contracts and incorrectly placed the legislature in the role of the judiciary," said Steve Schneider, AIA vice president, Midwest Region. "The interested parties can now continue to move forward sorting out liability, settling claims, and keeping the cleanup on schedule without the threat of onerous legislative interference."