Mock v. Allstate Ins. Co.
Mock v. Allstate Ins. Co.
Opinion of the Court
This matter is before the Court on Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment [# 39]
I. Factual Background
Plaintiffs purchased homeowners insurance coverage from Defendant for their home in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The applicable insurance policy covers "sudden and accidental direct physical loss to [the] property." Ex. A [# 39-1] at 24. It does not cover loss to the property caused by "design," "workmanship," or "construction." Id. at 26. It also does not cover loss "when there are two or more causes of loss to the covered property, and the predominant cause of loss is excluded" by other provisions of the policy. Id. at 27.
A hail storm hit the property in May of 2015. Motion [# 39] at 4; Response [# 45] at 3. Plaintiffs initially made a claim under their insurance policy for damage to the roof, then subsequently added a claim for damage to their EIFS stucco system.
Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit on December 16, 2016. See Compl. [# 6] at 1. They have asserted four claims: (1) entry of a declaratory judgment "fixing and determining the rights and obligations of the Parties under the policy and interpreting and resolving the issues under the policy;" (2) breach of contract; (3) common law insurance bad faith; and (4) violation of
II. Standard of Review
The purpose of a motion for summary judgment pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 56 is to assess whether trial is necessary. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett ,
The burden is on the movant to show the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Adler v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ,
*1090Only documents that meet the evidentiary requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 56 may be considered for purposes of summary judgment. Rule 56(c) provides that:
(1) A party asserting that a fact cannot be or is genuinely disputed must support the assertion by:
(A) citing to particular parts of materials in the record, including depositions, documents, electronically stored information, affidavits or declarations, stipulations (including those made for purposes of the motion only), admissions, interrogatory answers, or other materials[.]
...
(3) Materials Not Cited. The court need consider only the cited materials, but it may consider other materials in the record.
(4) Affidavits or Declarations. An affidavit or declaration used to support or oppose a motion must be made on personal knowledge, set out facts that would be admissible in evidence, and show that the affiant or declarant is competent to testify on the matters stated.
Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)(1)-(4).
III. Analysis
In their Response [# 45], Plaintiffs assert four arguments in support of their contention that summary judgment is not appropriate in this case. The Court need only address two here.
A. Policy Language
Plaintiffs assert that because the applicable insurance policy expressly covers "sudden and accidental direct physical loss to property" without defining "sudden and accidental," those terms should be construed against the insurance company. Response [# 45] at 10. Plaintiffs further assert that "sudden and accidental" means "unexpected and unintended." Because the damage to their home was "unexpected and unintended," they argue, the loss should be covered. Id. at 11.
Plaintiffs rely on Hecla Mining Company v. New Hampshire Insurance Company ,
Preliminarily, Hecla does not stand for the proposition that the use of the phrase "sudden and accidental direct physical loss to property" in a homeowners' insurance policy means unexpected and unintended loss to the home. Rather, Hecla holds that a pollution exclusion clause in a commercial liability insurance policy which provides coverage for a "sudden and accidental" event is inconsistent with that policy's definition of an "occurrence" as an accident including "continuous or repeated exposure to conditions." In light of this inconsistency, the Court held that use of "sudden" in the policy exclusion was ambiguous.
*1091For that reason, the Court rejected the "temporal connotation" of "sudden," and instead construed the term to mean "unintended and unexpected."
Moreover, in the absence of any internal inconsistency which creates ambiguity, the word "sudden" in the Plaintiffs' policy must be construed in accordance with its ordinary meaning. See Allstate Ins. Co. v. Huizar ,
Accordingly, the Court finds that the policy language indicating that the insurance covers "sudden and direct physical loss to property" means loss which was brought about in a short time, not loss which occurred over time. See Tynan's Nissan, Inc. v. Am. Hardware Mut. Ins. Co. ,
B. Damage to the EIFS System
Plaintiffs contend that "there is a factual dispute as to whether the damage to the EIFS system was caused by a design or construction issue." Response [# 45] at 14. Be that as it may, the Court finds that there is no genuine issue of material fact regarding whether the damage to the EIFS system was "sudden and accidental," as required by the plain language of the policy. The engineers hired by both parties opined that the EIFS system was damaged as the result of long term water intrusion over a period of years. Motion [# 39] at 12 (citing Ex. B-9 [# 39-2] at 6); Response [# 45] at 14 (citing Ex. 9 [# 45-9] at 1). Regardless of whether the damage occurred because of a design flaw in the EIFS system or a construction issue, there is no dispute that the home was built in 1994, water seeped into the EIFS system over a period of years, and the damage to the stucco at the residence was due to this long term water infiltration. Ex. B-18 [# 39-2] at 83; Ex. B-9 [# 39-2] at 43-45. Simply stated, such loss is not "sudden," and therefore the policy does not cover it.
C. Bad Faith Claims
Finally, the Court notes that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has explicitly held that under circumstances similar to those in this case, where coverage was properly denied and the only claimed damages flow from that coverage denial, Plaintiffs' bad faith claims must also fail as a matter of law. MarkWest Hydrocarbon, Inc. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. ,
Accordingly, Defendant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on Plaintiffs' bad faith claims.
IV. Conclusion
For the reasons set forth above,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Motion [# 39] is GRANTED . The Clerk of Court shall close this case after entering judgment in favor of Defendant and against Plaintiffs on all claims.
"[# 39]" is an example of the convention I use to identify the docket number assigned to a specific paper by the Court's case management and electronic case filing system (CM/ECF). I use this convention throughout this Order.
This case has been referred to the undersigned for all purposes pursuant to D.C.COLO.LCivR 40.1(c) and
Ellis v. J.R.'s Country Stores, Inc. ,
EIFS means "exterior insulation finishing system." Response [# 45] at 3. "The system is essentially a thin layer of stucco finish on approximately three to four inches of insulated material, under which is a vapor barrier. This was a common exterior cladding system at the time the home was built, 1994...."
The Court notes that Defendant further argues that the policy expressly excludes coverage for "faulty, inadequate or defective... design... [and] construction." Motion [# 39] at 3 (citing Ex. A [# 39-1] at 26). Hence, Plaintiffs' contention that a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether the damage to the EIFS stucco system was a caused by a design defect or a construction problem precludes entry of summary judgment appears to lack merit in light of the explicit policy exclusions. Nevertheless, because the loss does not fall within the coverage grant, the Court need not consider the applicability of the policy exclusions. See, e.g. , Greystone Constr., Inc. v. Nat'l Fire & Marine Ins. Co. ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Mark MOCK, an Individual, and Susan Mock, an Individual v. ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, an Illinois Company
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published