{"id":900125,"date":"2022-07-12T15:21:30","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T21:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=900125"},"modified":"2022-07-12T15:21:30","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T21:21:30","slug":"general-liability-policy-mistake-not-occurrence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-liability-policy-mistake-not-occurrence\/","title":{"rendered":"California Appellate Court Rules That Mistakenly Grading The Wrong Land Is Not An Accident"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Jared De Jong and Scott S. Thomas | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paynefears.com\/insights\/california-appellate-court-rules-mistakenly-grading-wrong-land-not-accident\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Payne &amp; Fears<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a decision that further muddies the already murky waters of \u201coccurrence\u201d jurisprudence, the California Court of Appeal has ruled that a general liability policy does not cover a homeowner who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/occurrence-intentional-act-without-harm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mistakenly grades the wrong piece of land<\/a> because the act of grading land is not \u201caccidental.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;<em>Ghukasian v. Aegis Security Insurance Company<\/em>, ___ Cal. App. 5th ___, 2022 WL 1421511 (2022), a homeowner instructed her contractor to clear and level a piece of land that the homeowner believed was part of her property. Unfortunately, the land was owned by a neighbor, who sued the homeowner and the contractor for trespass and negligence. The homeowner tendered to her insurer, Aegis. The homeowner\u2019s policy contained a standard insuring agreement creating coverage for property damage caused by an \u201coccurrence,\u201d defined by the policy as an \u201caccident,&nbsp;including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions.\u201d The insurer denied coverage, arguing that intentionally grading land is not an accident. Coverage litigation ensued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trial court granted summary judgment in the insurer\u2019s favor. On appeal, the homeowner argued that the California Supreme Court\u2019s most recent \u201coccurrence\u201d decision,&nbsp;<em>Liberty Surplus Insurance Corp. v. Ledesma &amp; Meyer Construction Co.<\/em>, 5 Cal. 5th 216 (2018), overruled two prior decisions holding there is no coverage for intentionally \u2013 but mistakenly \u2013 encroaching on land because such conduct is not an \u201caccident.\u201d&nbsp;<em>Ledesma<\/em>&nbsp;involved claims of negligent hiring and retention against an employer. After surveying the history of occurrence law, the Supreme Court in&nbsp;<em>Ledesma<\/em>&nbsp;concluded that an employer\u2019s negligence in hiring an employee is accidental, even if the employee commits an intentional tort. In&nbsp;<em>Ghukasian<\/em>, the Court of Appeal rejected the homeowner\u2019s reliance on&nbsp;<em>Ledesma<\/em>. The appellate court explained that&nbsp;<em>Ledesma<\/em>&nbsp;did not change California occurrence law or overrule prior cases. The court noted that unlike&nbsp;<em>Ledesma<\/em>, where the employer was one step removed from the non-accidental conduct, the homeowner here committed the deliberate act herself. In addition, the court explained that coverage does not exist simply because the neighbor sued for negligence, since coverage is determined by analyzing the factual allegations, not the labels attached to causes of action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The takeaway<\/strong>:\u00a0<em>Ghukasian\u00a0<\/em>is troubling case. It shows that\u00a0<em>Ledesma<\/em>, which policyholders assumed would clarify and correct earlier decisions, might not be as far reaching or helpful as anticipated.\u00a0<em>Ghukasian\u00a0<\/em>also shows that some courts will accept aggressive \u201cno-occurrence\u201d arguments by insurers.\u00a0<em>Ghukasian\u00a0<\/em>offers a cautionary tale: Many acts that result in unintended damage, such as hiring an employee or grading land, can be characterized as deliberate and, according to\u00a0<em>Ghukasian<\/em>, not covered by liability insurance. Moving forward, we expect to see more denials and disputes on the occurrence issue, particularly in industries like construction, where policyholders do not \u201caccidentally\u201d build things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jared De Jong and Scott S. Thomas | Payne &amp; Fears In a decision that further muddies the already murky waters of \u201coccurrence\u201d jurisprudence, the California Court of Appeal has ruled that a general liability policy does not cover a homeowner who mistakenly grades the wrong piece of land because the act of grading land&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-liability-policy-mistake-not-occurrence\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">California Appellate Court Rules That Mistakenly Grading The Wrong Land Is Not An Accident<\/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":[14,30],"tags":[9895,88,12,64,10727],"class_list":["post-900125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-2","category-general-liability-policy","tag-advise-consult","tag-california","tag-construction","tag-general-liability-policy-2","tag-occurrence-2","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>California Appellate Court Rules That Mistakenly Grading The Wrong Land Is Not An Accident - 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\/general-liability-policy-mistake-not-occurrence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California Appellate Court Rules That Mistakenly Grading The Wrong Land Is Not An Accident - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jared De Jong and Scott S. Thomas | Payne &amp; Fears In a decision that further muddies the already murky waters of \u201coccurrence\u201d jurisprudence, the California Court of Appeal has ruled that a general liability policy does not cover a homeowner who mistakenly grades the wrong piece of land because the act of grading land&hellip; Continue reading California Appellate Court Rules That Mistakenly Grading The Wrong Land Is Not An Accident\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-liability-policy-mistake-not-occurrence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-12T21:21:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-liability-policy-mistake-not-occurrence\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-liability-policy-mistake-not-occurrence\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7\"},\"headline\":\"California Appellate Court Rules That Mistakenly Grading The Wrong Land Is Not An Accident\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-12T21:21:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/general-liability-policy-mistake-not-occurrence\/\"},\"wordCount\":525,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Advise &amp; 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