{"id":897995,"date":"2020-09-23T15:09:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T21:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=897995"},"modified":"2020-09-25T15:17:05","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T21:17:05","slug":"construction-defect-property-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-defect-property-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleging Property Damage in Construction Defect Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>David Adelstein | <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.floridaconstructionlegalupdates.com\/alleging-property-damage-in-construction-defect-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\">Florida Construction Legal Updates<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When there is a\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-defect-lawsuits-often-hinge-document-retention\/\">construction defect lawsuit<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0there is an insurance coverage issue or consideration.\u00a0\u00a0<strong>As I have said repeatedly in other articles, it is all about\u00a0<u>maximizing insurance coverage\u00a0<\/u>regardless of whether you are the plaintiff prosecuting the construction defect claim or the contractor(s) alleged to have committed the construction defect and property damage. \u00a0It is about triggering first, the insurer\u2019s duty to defend, and second, the insurer\u2019s duty to\u00a0indemnify\u00a0its insured for the property damage. \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The construction defect claim and lawsuit begins with how the claim and, then, lawsuit is couched knowing that the duty to defend is triggered by allegations in the lawsuit (complaint). &nbsp;Thus, preparing the lawsuit (complaint) is vital to maximize the insurer\u2019s duty to defend its insured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a recent opinion out of the Eleventh Circuit,&nbsp;<em>Southern-Owners Ins. Co. v. MAC Contractors of Florida, LLC<\/em>, 2020 WL 4345199 (11<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Cir. 2020), a general contractor was sued for construction defects in the construction of a custom home. &nbsp;A dispute arose pre-completion and the owner hired another contractor to complete the house and remediate construction defects. &nbsp; The contractor\u2019s CGL insurer originally provided a defense to the general contractor but then withdrew the defense and filed an action for declaratory relief asking for the declaration that it had no duty to defend the contractor because the underlying lawsuit did NOT allege property damage.&nbsp; The trial court agreed with the contractor and granted summary judgment in its favor finding that the underlying complaint did not allege property damage beyond defective work.&nbsp; But, on appeal, the Eleventh Circuit reversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among other allegations, the owner\u2019s underlying complaint against the contractor asserted that the contractor committed defects through chipped pavers in the driveways and walkways, inconsistent paint finish, marks on ceilings, damage to exterior doors, damage to the top stair tread, damage to hardwood floors, metal roof dents, scratches in granite, holes in ceilings, etc.&nbsp; The owner sought its costs to repair and remediate the defects and damage from the contractor. &nbsp;In looking at whether the &nbsp;contractor\u2019s CGL insurer had a duty to defend the contractor\u2013the insured\u2013the Eleventh Circuit (focusing on precedent out of the Eleventh Circuit) stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The operative amended complaint alleged that [the contractor] used subcontractors for work on the residence and that the residence was \u201creplete with construction defects\u201d and various damage. It did not further allege which subcontractors performed which work or how the damage occurred. Given these ambiguities, the complaint\u2019s allegations are broad enough to allow [the contractor] to prove that one subcontractor negligently damaged nondefective work performed by another subcontractor.&nbsp; If [the contractxor] could establish that at least some of the damage arose in this way, there would be \u201cdamage apart from the defective work itself\u201d and therefore \u201cproperty damage.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>***<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For these reasons, we conclude that the underlying operative complaint can fairly be construed to allege \u201cproperty damage\u201d within the meaning of the CGL policy and Florida law. Accordingly, the district court erred in granting summary judgment to [the CLG insurer] on this basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>MAC Contractors of Florida<\/em>, 2020 WL at *4 (internal citations omitted).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Adelstein | Florida Construction Legal Updates When there is a\u00a0construction defect lawsuit,\u00a0there is an insurance coverage issue or consideration.\u00a0\u00a0As I have said repeatedly in other articles, it is all about\u00a0maximizing insurance coverage\u00a0regardless of whether you are the plaintiff prosecuting the construction defect claim or the contractor(s) alleged to have committed the construction defect and&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-defect-property-damage\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Alleging Property Damage in Construction Defect Lawsuit<\/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":[4,9721],"tags":[9895,229,56],"class_list":["post-897995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-defects","category-property-damage","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction-defect-litigation","tag-property-damage","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>Alleging Property Damage in Construction Defect Lawsuit - Advise &amp; 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