property insurance Archives - The Insurance & Reinsurance Report

September 5, 2019 Uncategorized

Seventh Circuit Holds That Replacement Cost Coverage Requires Aesthetic Matching in Hailstorm Claim

In the latest entry of “matching” jurisprudence under first party property policies, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledging that jurisdictions have reached conflicting results and applying Illinois law, held that a carrier was required to replace undamaged siding to match the panels replaced due to damage in a hailstorm.[1] In doing so, the court affirmed the Northern District of Illinois’ award of summary judgment in favor of the insured on that issue.

The parties’ dispute arose out of a May 2014 hailstorm that …

July 10, 2019 Uncategorized

When a Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch: An Appraiser’s Bias May Cost the Policyholder in the Long Run

In a long-awaited decision, Colorado’s highest court ruled a designated appraiser in a property insurance dispute must remain impartial and free from favoring one party over the other. Specifically, the Supreme Court held that the policy language required appraisers to be “unbiased, disinterested, and unswayed by personal interest.” This decision is a win for the insurance industry, although the Supreme Court created a framework that is certain to lead to disputes about an appraiser’s partiality in the future.

The decision in Owners Insurance Co. v. …

June 8, 2015 Bad Faith and Extra-Contractual Liability

State-Created Insurance Entity Exempt from Florida’s First-Party Bad Faith Statute

In Citizens Property Insurance Corp. v. Perdido Sun Condominium Ass’n, the Florida Supreme Court was asked to decide “whether the Florida Legislature intended … [for] a state-created entity that provided property insurance to be liable for statutory first-party bad faith claims as an exception to its statutory immunity from suit.” After prevailing in a breach of contract action against Citizens, Perdido Sun sued Citizens for bad faith under Florida’s Section 624.155(1). Citizens sought to dismiss the bad faith complaint based upon its statutory immunity. …