Vanguard Insurance Company v. Melinda

The sole issue presented concerns whether this Court should adopt the theory of dual or concurrent causation in the context
of insurance liability. The problem of concurrent causation arises "hen an insured cause joins with one or more additional
causes, which may be uninsured . . . ." 1 The question in such cases is whether the convergence of causes should defeat
an insurance policy exclusion. A minority of courts in foreign jurisdictions have applied the concurrent causation theory to impose insurance liability
notwithstanding an explicit policy exclusion. These cases involve the convergence of two or more causes of an indivisible
injury to the insured and one of the causes falls within coverage of the insurance policy. 2 The Court of Appeals applied
the minority rule of concurrent causation to reverse summary Disposition for the plaintiff insurer in this declaratory judgment
action. 181 Mich App 36; 448 NW2d 754 (1989).