ChampionX v. AIG Insurance

── ChampionX v. AIG Insurance ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Date: June 02, 2026 Category: Private Civil Diversity Case: 25-20030 Document: 62-1 Page: 1 Date Filed: 06/02/2026 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals ____________ Fifth Circuit FILED No. 25-20030 June 2, 2026 ____________ Lyle W. Cayce Clerk ChampionX Corporation, Plaintiff—Appellant, versus AIG Insurance Company of Canada; The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, Defendants—Appellees. ______________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas USDC No. 4:23-CV-3190 ______________________________ Before Elrod, Chief Judge, and Clement and Haynes, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam: * ChampionX Corporation appeals the grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants AIG Insurance Company of Canada and The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania. Because ChampionX does not have contractual standing and the district court did not explain why the plaintiffs _____________________ * This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5. Case: 25-20030 Document: 62-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 06/02/2026 No. 25-20030 that ChampionX seeks to add do not, we AFFIRM in part and VACATE and REMAND in part. I The two defendants in this case issued three successive, year-long commercial general-liability policies to Ecolab Inc., which together provided coverage to the company between December 31, 2017, and December 31, 2020. The policies contained a broad-form named-insured endorsement stating that the policies covered any subsidiary, associated, affiliated, allied, or acquired company or corporation of which Ecolab had more than a 50% ownership interest. Through a series of complex transactions and mergers in 2019 and 2020, ChampionX obtained ownership of several subsidiaries of Ecolab. These corporate entities included ChampionX Holding, Inc., and Nalco Champion, which later became ChampionX Canada ULC. ChampionX asserts that as part of these transactions and agreements, it acquired the rights “to or under” Ecolab’s insurance policies with ICSOP and AIG. On June 4, 2020, Highwood Oil Company Ltd. initiated suit in Alberta, Canada, against “Nalco Champion[,] an Ecolab Company[;] Ecolab[;] Nalco Canada ULC[;] and ChampionX Canada ULC (collectively ‘Nalco’)” alleging negligence, breach of contract, and negligent misrepresentation. Highwood’s complaint alleged that, in February 2018, Nalco provided a report advising Highwood that it had conducted a Pipeline Risk/Probability Assessment for various Highwood pipelines and determined that the corrosion probability was low. Nevertheless, in July 2018, Highwood discovered an oil-emulsion release arising from several failures of one of the pipelines included in the report, which it maintains was caused by internal corrosion. 2  Case: 25-20030 Document: 62-1 Page: 3 Date Filed: 06/02/2026 No. 25-20030 ChampionX Corporation filed a notice of loss to ICSOP and AIG in July 2020. ICSOP and AIG denied the claim, responding that “there [wa]s no coverage under