Protection litigation is typically a sport of deciphering the language of an advanced doc, the insurance coverage coverage. Doing so will not be all the time simple, and issues should not all the time as they appear. This put up is a reminder to review When Phrases Collide: Coverage Interpretation Doctrines and the ten Commandments. Perceive your Insurance coverage Coverage Higher—RTFP!
A current Washington ruling highlights the significance of learning the coverage intimately to seek out crucial pathways to success, even the place the case might look doomed. 1 Craig Spurlock lived in Washington state and had a State Farm householders coverage. In a storm, rainwater amassed within the crawlspace below the home as a result of a sump pump backup. As defined beneath, below the coverage phrases, if the sump pump was positioned “inside the inside” of the “dwelling,” then the loss was coated. The sump pump was bodily positioned within the crawl area below the home. Looks like it’s excluded, proper? That’s what State Farm argued when denying the declare. It was improper.
Mr. Spurlock’s coverage included a Again-up of Sewer Drain (BUSD) endorsement, which coated water back-ups solely if the water comes from “a sump pump . . . positioned inside the inside of the dwelling …” (emphasis added). The coverage then outlined the time period “dwelling,” which contained two related however separate key phrases, “construction” and “constructing construction.” Particularly, the Coverage outlined “dwelling” as “the constructing construction” in addition to “constructions hooked up to the dwelling.” The courtroom then seemed for the definitions of the 2 phrases “construction” and “constructing construction.” Because the phrases are totally different and located in the identical clauses, the courtroom discovered that they shouldn’t be interpreted as being the identical factor. The Coverage particularly outlined “constructing construction” as “a construction totally enclosed with everlasting partitions and a roof” that features “the muse supporting the construction, together with…crawl area partitions.” For the undefined time period “construction,” the courtroom adopted the frequent maxim of turning to dictionary definitions. It famous that Webster’s outlined “construction” as “one thing constructed or constructed.”
The crucial query was whether or not the sump pump was itself hooked up to the muse partitions below the crawl area or positioned inside a “construction” that was itself hooked up to the muse partitions. Right here, it was undisputed that the sump pump was positioned inside a “buck-out,” a small construction that housed it and held it in place. Additional, the “buck-out” was undisputedly bodily hooked up to the muse partitions within the crawlspace. Making use of these information to the coverage, the courtroom held that the buck-out was clearly itself a “construction” and that “construction” was itself “hooked up” to the muse partitions within the crawl area, which constitutes a “constructing construction” and, subsequently, a “dwelling.” Thus, the sump pump, positioned beneath the home within the crawl area, was sufficiently positioned on the “inside of the dwelling” to assist protection.
As this case exhibits, by no means surrender and not using a thorough coverage overview simply because a denial primarily based on an advanced coverage sounds proper. It might very nicely find yourself being improper.
A associated weblog for these is What’s Lined Beneath Buildings Away from the Residence Premises, written by my Chicago Merlin Legislation Group colleague Christina Phillips.
Thought For The Day
“Our best weak point lies in giving up. Essentially the most sure method to succeed is all the time to attempt only one extra time.”
—Thomas Edison
1 Spurlock v. State Farm Hearth & Cas. Co., 2:23-cv-00467 (W.D. Wash. Dec. 6, 2024).
