{"id":6809,"date":"2014-08-21T06:05:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T12:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=6809"},"modified":"2014-08-19T14:07:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T20:07:09","slug":"federal-judge-rules-flood-coverage-issue-involving-personal-property-question-fact-property-insurance-coverage-law-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/federal-judge-rules-flood-coverage-issue-involving-personal-property-question-fact-property-insurance-coverage-law-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Rules Flood Coverage Issue Involving Personal Property is a Question of Fact : Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Christopher Nahas &#8211; Property Insurance Coverage &#8211; August 10, 2014<\/p>\n<p>A federal judge in Pennsylvania denied an insurer\u2019s motion for summary judgment on the issue of coverage finding that issues of fact existed whether or not the insureds\u2019 flood policy exclusively covered personal property.1<\/p>\n<p>Plaintiffs Krupa and Patel owned a Subway franchise damaged by flooding on September 8, 2011. The plaintiffs\u2019 submitted a claim for flood damages to Allstate which was acting as a \u201cWrite Your Own\u201d carrier and administered the Standard Flood Insurance Policy covering the plaintiffs\u2019 property. Allstate denied the claim contending that the policy only covered personal property and therefore did not cover the loss in question. In addition Allstate claimed that the policy had been transferred from a previous insured and was therefore not valid.<\/p>\n<p>I will address the first issue of whether the policy covered personal property, and not the issue of assignment.<\/p>\n<p>While the policy indicated that coverage was to be applied to contents the court found that the meaning of the term contents was ambiguous given the fact scenario presented. Specifically, the court noted three ambiguities:<\/p>\n<p>that the meaning of the term \u2018contents\u2019 in the context of this case was not clear;<\/p>\n<p>the particular contents covered were not listed; and<\/p>\n<p>the court found it was not clear whether the term contents should be construed as synonymous with personal property under the policy.<\/p>\n<p>The court noted that the SFIP does not define the term contents.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs\u2019 deposition testimony described the purchase of \u2018equipment\u2019 and \u2018contents\u2019 as well as the purchase of the Subway business franchise, but it was not clear from the testimony whether the definitions of \u2018equipment\u2019 and \u2018contents\u2019 as described was synonymous with the term \u2018personal property\u2019 as written in the policy. For this reason the judge concluded that an issue of fact existed and therefore summary judgment was precluded.<\/p>\n<p>This case illustrates how a contractual ambiguity can work in favor of an insured. Just because a carrier denies a claim does not mean the claim is not valid. As this case illustrates terms like \u2018contents\u2019 and \u2018personal property\u2019 may well require clarification and a factual determination.<\/p>\n<p>If your claim has been denied by your insurance carrier you should\u00a0contact a professional to review your claim.<\/p>\n<p>1 Mahakali Krupa, LLC v. Allstate Insurance Co., No. 3:12-CV-00569 (M.D. Pa. July 2, 2014).<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com\/2014\/08\/articles\/insurance\/federal-judge-rules-flood-coverage-issue-involving-personal-property-is-a-question-of-fact\/index.html\">Federal Judge Rules Flood Coverage Issue Involving Personal Property is a Question of Fact : Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christopher Nahas &#8211; Property Insurance Coverage &#8211; August 10, 2014 A federal judge in Pennsylvania denied an insurer\u2019s motion for summary judgment on the issue of coverage finding that issues of fact existed whether or not the insureds\u2019 flood policy exclusively covered personal property.1 Plaintiffs Krupa and Patel owned a Subway franchise damaged by flooding&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/federal-judge-rules-flood-coverage-issue-involving-personal-property-question-fact-property-insurance-coverage-law-blog\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Federal Judge Rules Flood Coverage Issue Involving Personal Property is a Question of Fact : Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[990,11,991],"class_list":["post-6809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance-claims","tag-flood-coverage","tag-insurance-claim","tag-personal-property","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Federal Judge Rules Flood Coverage Issue Involving Personal Property is a Question of Fact : Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/federal-judge-rules-flood-coverage-issue-involving-personal-property-question-fact-property-insurance-coverage-law-blog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal Judge Rules Flood Coverage Issue Involving Personal Property is a Question of Fact : Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Christopher Nahas &#8211; Property Insurance Coverage &#8211; August 10, 2014 A federal judge in Pennsylvania denied an insurer\u2019s motion for summary judgment on the issue of coverage finding that issues of fact existed whether or not the insureds\u2019 flood policy exclusively covered personal property.1 Plaintiffs Krupa and Patel owned a Subway franchise damaged by flooding&hellip; 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