Last April saw decisions handed down in Pennsylvania and Florida that addressed the ghoulish question of whether first-party policies cover property damage from a decomposing body, and the courts in both jurisdictions held that the answer in no. A word of warning – the balance of this post is not for the squeamish. The first decision was Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London v. Creagh, — Fed.Appx. —, 2014 WL 1408868 (3rd Cir. , April 14, 2014). The insured owned a building in Philadelphia where a tenant died in the bathroom of a second floor apartment. The body went undiscovered for two weeks, by which time bodily fluids had seeped through the floor, contaminating both the apartment itself and parts…
Blog Archives
Insurers Say “Over My Dead Body” to Claims for Damage From Decomposition
Tagged with: Corpses, Florida, Pennsylvania
Posted in Decomposition, Explosion, Microorganisms, Seepage or Leakage
Posted in Decomposition, Explosion, Microorganisms, Seepage or Leakage
Florida, Georgia and Texas Appraisal Update: Is Causation A Coverage Question For The Court or A Damages Question for The Panel?
In most jurisdictions, underlying coverage issues must be resolved prior to invoking appraisal in a first-party property claim. The question of what constitutes a coverage issue (typically reserved for a court’s judicial determination) and what constitutes a damage issue (appropriate for an appraisal panel’s consideration), however, is not always readily apparent. A routine subject of this particular appraisal debate is whether causation is a coverage or a damages inquiry, and recent decisions under Florida, Georgia and Texas law are evident of two things: (1) the determination of the issue is, in large part, factually dependent; but (2) the debate is far from over. In a recent appellate decision, Citizens Prop. Ins. Corp. v. Denetrescu, 2014 WL 1225124, — So.3d —…
Tagged with: Florida, Georgia, Texas
Posted in Arbitration and Appraisal, Causation, Preservation and Protection, Wear and Tear
Posted in Arbitration and Appraisal, Causation, Preservation and Protection, Wear and Tear
Florida Property Manager’s Insurable Interest Is Limited To Its Fees
In Banta Properties, Inc. v. Arch Specialty, Ins. Co., —Fed. Appx.— , 2014 WL 274478 (11th Cir., January 24, 2014), the Eleventh Circuit recently held that a property manager’s insurable interest in the apartment complexes that it managed was limited to the income that it was entitled to receive under its contracts with the buildings’ owners. Under Florida statutes, the measure of insurable interest is the loss that the policyholder might sustain from damage to the property, and that was held to preclude the property manager from asserting such an interest and recovering on its own behalf for the property damage that the apartments sustained from Hurricane Wilma. In October of 2005, Hurricane Wilma damaged three apartment complexes in Broward…
Florida Courts Differ On Whether The Undefined Term “Structural Damage” In A Sinkhole Case Should Be Given A Broad Or A Narrow Interpretation
Since 2005, Florida law has defined “sinkhole loss” as “structural damage to the building, including the foundation, caused by sinkhole activity.” The term “structural damage” was long-undefined, however, leading numerous Florida courts to interpret that phrase broadly as meaning nothing more than “damage to the structure.” In 2011, however, the Florida Legislature adopted a much narrower five-part definition of “structural damage” for application when construing policies affording coverage for sinkhole loss. Fla. Stat. §627.706(2)(k) (2011). The state’s federal courts have now split on the issue of whether that definition automatically applies to contracts of insurance issued after the statute’s effective date. The question came to the forefront in Juan Pinzon and Jaqueline Espitia v. The First Liberty Ins. Corp., 2013…
