Blog Archives

North Carolina Court Finds Coverage for Restaurants’ COVID-19 Business Income Losses

A trial level court in North Carolina recently found coverage under first-party property insurance policies for the insured restaurants’ COVID-19-related business income losses.  In North State Deli, LLC et al. v. Cincinnati Ins. Co., et al., Case No. 20-CVS-02569 in the General Court of Justice, Superior Court Division, County of Durham, Judge Orlando F. Hudson, Jr. granted partial summary judgment to the plaintiff-insureds, finding that plaintiffs’ business income losses resulting from the governmental shutdown of its business constituted a “loss” to property, sufficient to trigger coverage under the Cincinnati policies.  Although similarly situation insureds will undoubtedly rely on this decision in support of their claims for coverage, it is important to note that the North State Deli decision relies heavily

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Posted in Business Interuption, Causes of Loss, Coverage, Direct Physical Loss or Damage, Order of Civil Authority

Trouble Brewing: Florida Federal Court Dismisses Beer Distributor’s Claim for COVID-19 Losses

Insurance claims arising out of COVID-19-related commercial losses have been hotly contested, and lawsuits have been filed across the country by policyholders seeking coverage for lost business income.  These claims typically raise similar coverage questions – whether the spread of a virus could constitute “direct physical loss,” whether civil authority coverage is triggered, and whether virus exclusions preclude coverage.  In Harvest Moon Distributors, LLC v. Southern-Owners Insurance Company, Case no. 6:20-cv-1026-Orl-40DCI, Judge Paul Byron of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida recently granted an insurer’s motion to dismiss in a different type of COVID-19 claim, relating to spoliation of product after a contract fell through.  The insured, Harvest Moon Distributors, LLC (“Harvest Moon”), is a wine

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Posted in Coverage, Direct Physical Loss or Damage

Eleventh Circuit Confirms Cleaning is not Direct Physical Loss

The Eleventh Circuit has provided some clarity to Florida businesses and their insurers dealing with COVID-19 claims. In Mama Jo’s Inc., d.b.a. Berries v. Sparta Ins. Co., No. 18-12887 (11th Cir. March 18, 2020), the Court held that a restaurant’s lost income and extra cleaning costs due to nearby roadwork did not trigger coverage because it did not involve direct physical loss or damage. In the underlying case pending in the Southern District of Florida, Mama Jo’s, Inc. v. Sparta Ins. Co., 17-CV-23362-KMM, 2018 WL 3412974, at *9 (S.D. Fla. June 11, 2018), the Court considered whether there was a direct physical loss when construction debris and dust from road work required the insured to clean its floors, walls, tables,

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Posted in Coverage, Direct Physical Loss or Damage

JPML Will Not Allow Centralization of MDL Covid-19 Lawsuits

On April 20, 2020, two policyholders involved in Covid-19 class action suits filed the first motion with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) asking for the transfer and coordination or consolidation of two class actions suits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania with nine so-called “related actions” filed in federal courts in Illinois, Florida, New York, Wisconsin, Ohio, California, Oregon, and Texas and “subsequent tag-along actions.”[1] Others followed suit in attempting to transfer, coordinate, and/or consolidate actions into several MDLs. There are currently more than 100 insurance companies named as defendants in the cases proposed for transfer. About The Authors

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Posted in Business Interuption, Direct Physical Loss or Damage

Free Ride on RCV? Not So Fast!

Most property insurance policies condition the payment of replacement cost value (RCV) on the property first being replaced or repaired, and courts typically enforce that requirement.  Replacement cost is not owed until the insured completes repair or replacement.  Yet what property adjuster has never encountered an insured who attempts to claim reimbursement for items not damaged in the loss on the theory that such items are within the RCV estimate and are a part of the property’s “restoration”? A recent Washington Court of Appeals decision illustrates.  In Mount Zion Lutheran Church v. Church Mutual Ins. Co., 2019 WL 2177893 Wash. App. (filed March 18, 2019; ordered published May 14, 2019), a fire damaged the interior of a church sanctuary.  Church

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Posted in Direct Physical Loss or Damage, Uncategorized

Florida Court Rejects Claim Replacement Of Undamaged Property Is Necessary For Aesthetic Uniformity

Late last week a federal court in Florida tossed a condominium association’s claims that it was entitled to replace undamaged hallway carpeting, wallpaper, baseboards, and woodwork in order to “achieve aesthetic uniformity” with similar hallway components replaced after water damage.  In Great Amer. Ins. Co. v. Towers of Quayside No. 4 Condominium Ass’n., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 150358, 2015 WL 6773870 (S.D. Fla., Nov. 4, 2015), the court held that replacing undamaged property to insure “matching” is only appropriate if the repairs concern “a continuous run” of items such as that. The policyholder owned a 25-story condominium building in Miami.  There was a tiled elevator landing on each floor separating the east and west hallways, and those portions of the

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Posted in Direct Physical Loss or Damage, Valuation, Water

Vermont Supreme Court Collapse Case Underscores Danger of Insuring Against the “Risk” of a Peril

Three months ago in Equinox on the Battenkill Mgmt. Ass’n. v. Philadelphia Indem. Ins. Co., 2015 VT 98 (Vt., Aug. 7, 2015), Vermont’s highest court held that a policy insuring against the “risks of . . . collapse” affords considerably broader coverage than one insuring against “direct loss [by] collapse.”  While the latter covers only a falling in, the former encompasses situations in which collapse is imminent and perhaps even situations in which “the insured building’s structural integrity has degraded to the point where it cannot be safely and reliably used.”  The case is a cautionary tale for underwriters everywhere, and it also contains a useful survey of “risk of collapse” jurisprudence from around the country. The policyholder was a

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Posted in Collapse, Direct Physical Loss or Damage, Faulty Workmanship or Design, Hidden Decay

Massachusetts Court: Loss of Drink Product Caused By Faulty Workmanship And Design of Bottle Caps Not a Covered Ensuing Loss

Monday saw a unanimous panel of Massachusetts’ intermediate level appellate court reject a policyholder’s ensuing loss arguments.  In H.P. Hood LLC v. Allianz Global Risks U.S. Ins. Co., 2015 Mass. App. LEXIS 175, 2015 WL 6629484 (Mass., Nov. 2, 2015), the justices held that the loss of over two million bottles of an energy drink was not separate or different in kind but rather “directly caused by, and completely bound up in” the excluded peril — faulty workmanship and design of the bottle caps. The insured produced a high-performance protein supplement known as Myoplex for Abbott Laboratories, and it had contracted to manufacture some forty million bottles in 2009.  The drink was a “shelf stable” beverage that did not require

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Posted in Direct Physical Loss or Damage, Ensuing Loss, Faulty Workmanship or Design

Seventh Circuit Holds Insured Entitled to a New Roof for Purely Cosmetic Hail Damage

The Seventh Circuit is becoming a difficult venue for insurers.  In November we reported that the Court of Appeals had held that the phrase “continuous or repeated exposure” in definition of occurrence meant that a continuous trigger theory applied, leaving the carrier exposed to a claim for 11 years of gradual water damage that was first reported 5 years after the last insurance policy expired.  Last month, in Advance Cable Co. v. Cincinnati Ins. Co., 2015 WL 3630699, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 9805 (7th Cir., Jun. 11, 2015), the same court held that cosmetic hail damage to a roof that had no affect on the structure’s functionality or life expectancy nonetheless constituted “direct physical loss” and required the insurer to

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Posted in Direct Physical Loss or Damage, Hailstorm

Missouri Court: “Equivalent” Requires that Replacement Siding be Both Equal in Value and Virtually Identical

In December, we published a post about a Minnesota Supreme Court case that held that under a replacement cost policy, the phrase “comparable material and quality” meant that all of the siding on 20 buildings had to be replaced to avoid a color mismatch, even though less than 2% had actually been damaged by hail.  According to the court, that was necessary to ensure a “reasonable” color match.  Last week, a unanimous panel of Missouri’s intermediate level appellate court reached a similar conclusion under a replacement cost contract of insurance that required replacement “for equivalent construction and use.”  In Alessi v. Mid-Century Ins. Co., 2015 WL 3874799, 2015 Mo.App. LEXIS 679 (Mo.App., Jun. 23, 2015), the judges held that the

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Posted in Direct Physical Loss or Damage, Hailstorm, Replacement Cost, Valuation
About The Property Insurance Law Observer
For more than four decades, Cozen O’Connor has represented all types of property insurers in jurisdictions throughout the United States, and it is dedicated to keeping its clients abreast of developments that impact the insurance industry. The Property Insurance Law Observer will survey court decisions, enacted or proposed legislation, and regulatory activities from all 50 states. We will also include commentary on current issues and developing trends of interest to first-party insurers.
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