Flood Basics still causing pain for some
Climate-Proofing Our Infrastructure: Building Climate Resilience with the Army Corps of Engineers
The Calm Before and After the Storm: How to Maximize Insurance Recovery for Catastrophic Weather Events
Law Brief®: David Pfeffer and Richard Schoenstein Discuss the Legal Implications of Infrastructure Collapses
Employer Responsibilities During the Texas Winter Storm
Filing Insurance Claims After the Texas Winter Storm
Hurricane Season Begins
Florida Farm Bureau General Insurance Company v. Linda Williams, 5D23-0183 (Fla. 5th DCA, Apr. 9, 2024) - In this case, Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeals addresses proper application of a hurricane deductible. The...more
Florida Farm Bureau General Insurance Company v. Richard and Nancy Jones; Florida 5th DCA, 5D23-0376 - Florida Farm Bureau General Insurance Company (Farm Bureau) appealed an order granting summary judgment in favor of the...more
Submitting a proof of loss using a carrier’s approved proof of loss form may be a mandatory post-loss obligation when invoking appraisal in commercial claims. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida...more
After heavy rains on March 30, 2024, a section of the southbound lane of famous Highway 1, which sits atop dramatic cliffs near Big Sur, collapsed and crumbled into the Pacific Ocean. The incident occurred near Rocky Creek...more
In late September, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida and traveled across the state. The storm brought with it significant storm surge that caused substantial flooding. The storm also was accompanied by...more
Hail damage is so typical in Texas that Chapter 542A of the Texas Insurance Code is known as the “Hail Bill.” Texas follows the concurrent cause doctrine. As the Texas Supreme Court held in Lyons v. Millers Casualty...more
On September 27, 2021, Judge Jose Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida granted summary judgment in favor of Scottsdale Insurance Company in LMP Holdings Inc. v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., case...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
A Florida appellate court recently made clear that the issue of insurance coverage can remain in dispute, even where an insurer has already paid out some benefits to an insured in connection with a claim. Avatar Prop. & Cas....more
Florida Statute §627.70132 allows an insured to make a claim for an alleged hurricane loss within three years of the event. This statute, however, is not a waiver of the insured’s initial burden of proof to establish...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
This article follows on from a series of previous articles seeking to address climate change litigation in the context of insurance and reinsurance. Three different, but important, decisions in December 2019 have once again...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
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
The winters in recent years have been making headlines, particularly on the East Coast, where snowfall reached record levels and with it the number of property damage claims....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
Texas homeowners Joe and Stacci Key sued their roofer, Lon Smith Roofing Contractors (“LSRC”), alleging LSRC violated the Texas Insurance Code by acting as an unlicensed public insurance adjustor. The trial court granted...more
When (if ever) are an insurer’s attorney’s fees and billing information discoverable in a coverage dispute? Though the question is straightforward, the answer can vary from case to case and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The...more
Lend Lease (US) Constr. LMB Inc. v. Zurich Am. Ins. Co., No. 11, 2017 N.Y. LEXIS 112 (N.Y. Feb. 14, 2017) - Early, in its opinion, the New York Court of Appeals noted that “[o]ne of the most dramatic images of...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
We have previously featured New Jersey District Court decisions addressing “unequivocal” denials in the context of policies’ suit limitation provisions. In the latest, Ryan v. Liberty Mut. Fire Ins. Co., No. 14-6308...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
It’s said that “defeat is an orphan,” but insurable losses often have multiple, concurrent causes. In some cases, one or more of those causes might be outside the scope of coverage, either by omission or exclusion. In Sebo v....more
Like other contracts, insurance policies are divided into parts, and most of the parts appear under headings or captions. A separate contract term (known as a “titles clause” or a “headings clause”) sometimes specifies that...more