{"id":889272,"date":"2016-06-08T11:36:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T17:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=889272"},"modified":"2016-06-08T11:36:19","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T17:36:19","slug":"broad-but-not-ambiguous-eighth-circuit-weighs-in-on-water-below-the-surface-exclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/broad-but-not-ambiguous-eighth-circuit-weighs-in-on-water-below-the-surface-exclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Broad but not Ambiguous: Eighth Circuit Weighs In On Water Below The Surface Exclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jenna Veronneau | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propertyinsurancecoverageinsights.com\/2016\/06\/broad-but-not-ambiguous-eighth-circuit-weighs-in-on-water-below-the-surface-exclusion\/\" target=\"_blank\">Property Insurance Coverage Insights<\/a> | June 1, 2016<\/p>\n<p>An exclusion in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/citizens-property-insurance-seeks-changes-for-water-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\">homeowner\u2019s policy<\/a> for loss resulting from \u201cwater . . . below the surface of the ground\u201d is not limited to naturally occurring water, according to a recent decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in <em>Bull v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co.<\/em>, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 9703 (8<sup>th<\/sup> Cir. May 27, 2016).<\/p>\n<p>The insured in <em>Bull v. Nationwide<\/em> discovered that a pipe buried beneath his garage had leaked, causing mold damage, foundation settlement and cracking.\u00a0 Nationwide denied the claim on the basis of an exclusion for \u201cwater or water-borne material below the surface of the ground,\u201d and the insured filed suit.\u00a0 The District Court granted Nationwide\u2019s motion for summary judgment, and the insured appealed to the Eighth Circuit.<\/p>\n<p>The insured, relying on case law from other jurisdictions (<em>Adrian Associates, General Contractors v. National Surety Corp.<\/em>, 638 S.W.2d 138, 141 (Tex. 1982); <em>Hatley v. Truck Ins. Exch.<\/em>, 261 Ore. 622, 624, 495 P.2d 1196 (1972)), first argued that the court should find that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/water-damage-exclusions-whats-excluded-excluded-standard-homeowners-policy-often-contentious-issue-insured-insurer\/\" target=\"_blank\">exclusion is ambiguous<\/a>, and should only apply to water from natural sources.\u00a0 The Eighth Circuit rejected the insured\u2019s argument, noting that it would be inappropriate to \u201cgraft limitations onto otherwise plain and straightforward policy language.\u201d The court emphasized that the breadth of the exclusion did not render it ambiguous, and looked to the Arkansas Supreme Court\u2019s previous refusal to accept disagreement among other courts over the meaning of a term as dispositive of ambiguity.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Eighth Circuit also rejected the insured\u2019s argument that the District Court had erroneously relied on two Arkansas Court of Appeals cases, in which the court interpreted policy language specifying that the exclusion applied to losses caused by \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/10-factors-to-consider-when-adjusting-flood-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\">water . . . below the surface of the ground <em>regardless of its source<\/em><\/a>.\u201d \u00a0Recognizing that those cases were indeed distinguishable, the court nevertheless concluded that demonstrating that other policies\u2019 provisions were perhaps drafted more carefully was insufficient to show ambiguity in the language at issue.<\/p>\n<p>This decision may prove helpful to insurers responding to policyholders\u2019 arguments relying on other jurisdictions and other policy language to demonstrate ambiguity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jenna Veronneau | Property Insurance Coverage Insights | June 1, 2016 An exclusion in a homeowner\u2019s policy for loss resulting from \u201cwater . . . below the surface of the ground\u201d is not limited to naturally occurring water, according to a recent decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Bull v. Nationwide Mut.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/broad-but-not-ambiguous-eighth-circuit-weighs-in-on-water-below-the-surface-exclusion\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Broad but not Ambiguous: Eighth Circuit Weighs In On Water Below The Surface Exclusion<\/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":[9264,3,9263],"class_list":["post-889272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance-claims","tag-homeowners-policy","tag-insurance-claims","tag-water","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>Broad but not Ambiguous: Eighth Circuit Weighs In On Water Below The Surface Exclusion - Advise &amp; 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