Property insurance policies are complex legal contracts. That’s because the insurance industry has its own language and processes that can be subject to multiple interpretations. ...more
A district court in Montana recently applied an anti-concurrent clause in a property insurance policy to preclude coverage based on an earth movement exclusion. In Ward v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Amer., No. 1:19-CV-0133-SPW, 2021...more
In a timely reaffirmation of the Fifth Circuit’s 2007 ruling in Leonard v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., a Louisiana federal court recently upheld the application of an insurance policy’s Anti-Concurrent Causation Clause (“ACC”)...more
In response to the wave of litigation over COVID-19-related business income claims, an overwhelming majority of courts considering the relevant policy language — approximately 80% — have found no coverage as a matter of law...more
In a recent decision arising out of Superstorm Sandy, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey confirmed the enforceability of anti-concurrent causation provisions. Zero Barnegat Bay, LLC v. Lexington...more
In the first part of the series “The Mortgage Servicer’s Role in Navigating Insurance Claims,” we covered assessing property damage and applying insurance proceeds in compliance with the terms of the standard mortgage...more
Many commercial and residential property insurance claims arising from major hurricanes like Hurricane Harvey present damage caused by multiple causes of loss, some of which may be covered (e.g., wind) and some of which may...more
Property policies typically include an exclusion for loss caused by or resulting from earth movement. Some insurers will provide coverage for earth movement, but that coverage will usually have a sub-limit. For years,...more
Frequent readers of the blog will appreciate that disputes involving the application of anti-concurrent causation language in the context of claims for flood or water damage have appeared with some frequency in recent years....more
Until very recently, the scarcity of water and the decline in oil prices in California prompted the joke that oil was being used as fracking fluid to get water out of the ground. In the last week, however, so much rain has...more
We have discussed on a number of occasions the issue of causation when there are multiple causes of loss, some covered and some not covered. Most jurisdictions apply what is known as the efficient proximate cause analysis...more
As we have written about before on this blog, the water damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 gave rise to important questions concerning the applicability of so-called “anti-concurrent causation” clauses. Such was...more
Three years out, Superstorm Sandy litigation continues to wend its way through New Jersey’s courts. Last weekend, a federal judge in the state handed a victory to the insurer in Stiso v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 2015 U.S....more