News & Analysis as of

Homeowner's Insurance Water Damage

Marshall Dennehey

Grappling With the Wear and Tear Exclusions of Homeowners’ Policies

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Chabad of Key Biscayne, Inc. v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., No. 22-13603 (11th Cir. 2023) - Chabad filed a claim for water damage after a drain or sewer pipe broke. The insurer denied the claim under the general water damage...more

Cozen O'Connor

No Bad Faith When Insurer Relied on Opinion of Independent Consultant

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The Court of Appeals of Georgia recently held that an insurer’s reliance on the report of an independent consultant creates a presumption that it did not act in bad faith in denying coverage. In Montgomery v. Travelers Home...more

White and Williams LLP

Pennsylvania Federal Court Excludes Expert Testimony That Tries To Force a Square Peg Into a Round Hole

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In Kenney v. Watts Regulator Co, No. 20-2995, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4539 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 11, 2021), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania considered whether to exclude the plaintiff’s...more

Chartwell Law

Plaintiffs’ Bar Hits A Wall When It Comes to “Access” Damages

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In Florida, for years, the plaintiffs’ bar has been filing first-party property law suits for ensuing water damages caused by the failure of cast-iron pipes. In those cases, in which there is no evidence of interior water...more

Carlton Fields

The Three “Musts” for a Competent Affidavit or Declaration

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Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal recently issued a decision that serves as a reminder not to take for granted a proposition that most practicing attorneys regularly encounter: a motion for summary judgment must be...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Florida Appeals Court Allows Assignment of Benefit Restrictions in Homeowner Policies - Ruling Sets Up Conflict with Earlier...

Holland & Knight LLP on

Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal (DCA) ruled on Sept. 5, 2018, that an insurer's anti-assignment provision was not prohibited. The Court disagreed with the Fifth DCA's decision in December 2017 prohibiting any such...more

Jaburg Wilk

Arizona Court of Appeals Holds Insureds May Assign a Post-Loss Breach of Contract Claim to Contractors

Jaburg Wilk on

The Holding - In Farmers Ins. Exchange v. The Honorable David Udall, 2018 WL 2931906 (June 12, 2018), the Arizona Court of Appeals accepted special action jurisdiction to hold that Insureds validly assigned post-loss...more

Rumberger | Kirk

Fifth DCA Strikes Blow To Popular Policy Exclusion

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The Fifth District Court of Appeal recently issued a decision that will likely force homeowners insurance carriers to rewrite one of their stalwart policy exclusions that pertains to “constant or repeated seepage or leakage”...more

Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig LLP

Contingency Fee Multipliers: Florida Supreme Court Rejects Rare and Exceptional Circumstances Requirement

Contingency fee multipliers increase attorney fee awards substantially. The general custom in American law is that each party is responsible for his or her own attorney’s fees, regardless of the outcome of the action. See...more

Cozen O'Connor

Genuine Dispute Defeats Both Bad Faith and Elder Abuse

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The Paslays sued State Farm for failing to pay a portion of the damage caused to their Pacific Palisades house by a heavy rainstorm and for forcing them to move back into the house while it was still under construction. The...more

Robinson+Cole Property Insurance Coverage...

Broad but not Ambiguous: Eighth Circuit Weighs In On Water Below The Surface Exclusion  

An exclusion in a homeowner’s policy for loss resulting from “water . . . below the surface of the ground” is not limited to naturally occurring water, according to a recent decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in...more

BakerHostetler

Diminished Value Claims Under Homeowners Coverage Certified in Georgia Class Action

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The court in Thompson v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30308 (D. Ga. 2016), recently issued a mixed ruling on class certification regarding diminished value claims for Georgia homeowners. The plaintiffs...more

Robinson+Cole Property Insurance Coverage...

Suit Limitation Is A Contractual Term, Not A Statute Of Limitations: Virginia Supreme Court Orders Allstate’s Demurrer Be Granted

The Virginia Supreme Court recently clarified that, even if the suit limitation in a standard fire insurance policy incorporates the language required by Virginia Code, the suit limitation language is not subject to statutory...more

Cozen O'Connor

Massachusetts Court Refuses to Apply Discovery Rule to Commencement of the Suit Limitations Period

Cozen O'Connor on

Monday, in Nurse v. Omega U.S.  Insurance., Inc., 2015 Mass. App. LEXIS 158, 2015 WL 5774390 (Mass.App., Oct. 5, 2015), a unanimous panel of Massachusetts’ intermediate level appellate court held that the two-year suit...more

Cozen O'Connor

Florida to Decide What Test Applies When Concurrent Multiple Perils Cause a Loss

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For years, Florida courts have been seesawing between two different doctrines to determine whether there is coverage under a property policy when two perils – one excluded and one included — combine to cause a loss. Two...more

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