Flood Basics still causing pain for some
K&L Gates Triage: Emergency Preparedness and Response in Long Term Care - Part II
Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (the "NFIP") to help make flood insurance more affordable in areas prone to flood damage. FEMA oversees the program and writes the terms of the Standard Flood Insurance...more
Flood exclusions may not apply when floods are preceded by winds strong enough to independently cause the loss, according to a recent decision issued by the Western District of Louisiana. In Doxey v. Aegis Security Ins. Co.,...more
When the National Weather Service names a storm heading in your direction, you know to expect wind and water. This can create a quandary for property insurers. Is water damage from a named windstorm caused by the flood or the...more
Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (the "NFIP") to help make flood insurance more affordable in higher-risk areas. FEMA oversees the program and writes the terms of the Standard Flood Insurance Policy...more
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently granted an insurer’s motion for summary judgment in a case arising from Superstorm Sandy based on unambiguous policy language providing a...more
While Hurricane Ike made landfall in Texas almost ten years ago, the resulting litigation is alive and well as evidenced by the recent decision in Texas Windstorm Insurance Association v. Dickinson Independent School...more
When is an insurer’s “Rejection of Proof of Loss” letter for flood insurance damage, which states on its face that it “is not a denial of your claim,” nevertheless a written denial of claim? According to the Third Circuit in...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
San Francisco Darren Teshima, Co-Leader of Orrick's Complex Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice, litigates high stakes disputes on behalf of clients in the financial and technology sectors and advises corporate...more
With Hurricane Harvey having pummeled much of the Texas Gulf Coast, businesses will soon look to secure insurance recoveries for the estimated billions of dollars in property damage and business income losses left in its...more
• Action Item #1: Insureds should try to report claims for all property damage, including those caused by Hurricane Harvey, by no later than August 31, 2017, in order to avail themselves of the opportunity for an 18 percent...more
The terms and conditions of the Standard Flood Insurance Policy (“SFIP”) are specified by regulations promulgated under the National Flood Insurance Act (“NFIA”). One of the terms in the SFIP provides that the insured cannot...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
The preemptive effect of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) on overlapping claims asserted by policyholders based on federal and state common law theories of liability is well established. “Numerous courts have held...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
The 2016 Atlantic hurricane season, which is coming to a close, has been quite active (translation: destructive and costly). So far, there have been fourteen named storms this season. Six of them were hurricanes, three of...more
It is well-established that claim processing and wrongful denial of coverage disputes involving federal flood insurance policies belong in federal court because they present substantial questions of federal law. The U.S....more
Courts across the country (and particularly since Super Storm Sandy in 2012) have consistently held that, in litigation involving a dispute concerning the investigation, adjustment, or payment of a flood claim under the...more
Readers of this blog may note that we have previously discussed the topic of anti-concurrent causation clauses in various jurisdictions around the country. As a quick reminder, an anti-concurrent causation clause is that...more
Last week, a unanimous panel of New Jersey’s intermediate level appellate court rejected policyholder arguments that even though flood was excluded, the proximate cause of their Superstorm Sandy loss was the non-excluded...more