Last year’s multistate outbreak of Hepatitis A virus infections linked to pomegranate seeds from Turkey left behind more than 3,000 claims for illnesses caused by HAV-contaminated pomegranate arils and more than 25 lawsuits in state and federal courts. Now one of the insurance carriers involved is asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for a ruling that could consider the foreign-born viral infections as one event for insurance purposes. Such a ruling would allow Maryland Casualty Company, which sold insurance to Fallon Trading Company, to pay out no more than $2 million in damages. It was Fallon that purchased pomegranate arils that were HAV-contaminated from United Juice, a subsidiary of the Turkish fruit producer Goknur Foodstuffs Import Export Trading. In the U.S. District Court filing, Maryland Casualty is suing Fallon to limit the insurance company’s obligation to $2 million by arguing that the outbreak is a single event, much like a car accident. The contaminated pomegranate arils ended up in Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend, a frozen juice product sold mostly by Costco stores. Fairview, OR-based Townsend recalled its product, as did Gresham, OR-based Scenic Fruit Company for Woodstock Frozen Organic Pomegranate Kernels. Canada and Europe also experienced earlier outbreaks in 2012 where the Turkish pomegranate seeds were the suspected source. In the court filing, attorneys for Maryland Casualty say Fallon “contends” the policy limit is $4 million. However, William Marler of the food safety law firm of Marler Clark says it actually might be $8 million. Marler, who represents most of the HAV victims, said his firm might intervene in the insurance dispute. Marler, who is also publisher of Food Safety News, writes about the issue in his personal blog under this subhead: “Yet another reason to hate insurance companies.”