{"id":904588,"date":"2025-07-22T16:03:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904588"},"modified":"2025-07-22T16:03:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T22:03:59","slug":"insurance-policy-meaning-of-accident-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/insurance-policy-meaning-of-accident-oregon\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Supreme Court Expands Meaning of &#8220;Accident&#8221; in Insurance Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Blake Robinson | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwt.com\/blogs\/government-contracts-insider\/2025\/06\/oregon-supreme-court-twigg-project-insurance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Davis Wright Tremaine<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Takeaways<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Owners can trigger an insurance policy without formally alleging a tort claim if the contractor&#8217;s defective work could support a tort claim.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The Oregon decision may allow property owners to assert only a breach of contract claim to trigger insurance coverage, depending on the policy language.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Owners should assert both contractual and negligence claims.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>On February 15, 2023, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a decision holding that a claim for breach of a settlement agreement did not trigger an insurance policy because a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/breach-of-contract-exclusion-precludes-coverage\/\">breach of contract<\/a> was not an &#8220;accident&#8221; under the policy, even though the alleged breach was negligently performing construction work required by the settlement agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On April 17, 2025, the Oregon Supreme Court reversed the Oregon Court of Appeals&#8217; decision.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwt.com\/blogs\/government-contracts-insider\/2025\/06\/oregon-supreme-court-twigg-project-insurance#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What the Oregon Supreme Court Decided<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwt.com\/blogs\/government-contracts-insider\/2023\/06\/oregon-appeals-court-construction-twigg-dispute\">Our prior advisory<\/a>&nbsp;has a more detailed recitation of the case&#8217;s factual background, but in brief, homeowners and contractor entered into a settlement agreement that required the contractor to repair certain construction defects. The homeowners then filed a claim for breach of the settlement agreement after the work was not done correctly. After obtaining a judgment, the homeowners sought to recover from the contractor&#8217;s insurer on the ground that the post-settlement defective work was an &#8220;accident&#8221; under the contractor&#8217;s policy. The term &#8220;accident&#8221; was not defined in the policy. The Court of Appeals held that the homeowners did not sufficiently allege there was an &#8220;accident&#8221; because they brought only a breach of contract claim, not a tort claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Oregon Supreme Court ultimately concluded that the homeowners &#8220;were not required to formally allege a tort claim or obtain an award in tort&#8221; to trigger the policy.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwt.com\/blogs\/government-contracts-insider\/2025\/06\/oregon-supreme-court-twigg-project-insurance#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a>&nbsp;Rather, they just needed &#8220;to establish that there was a basis in fact for imposing tort liability on&#8221; the contractor.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwt.com\/blogs\/government-contracts-insider\/2025\/06\/oregon-supreme-court-twigg-project-insurance#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a>&nbsp;In other words, if the contractor&#8217;s defective work&nbsp;<em>could<\/em>&nbsp;have been the basis for a tort claim (e.g., negligent construction), the work constituted an &#8220;accident&#8221; and triggered the insurance policy even though the homeowners asserted only a breach of contract claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Depending on the language of the applicable insurance policy, this case could relax the prior understanding that a property owner must assert both breach of contract and negligence claims to maximize the possibility of triggering insurance coverage. At least in some circumstances, asserting only a breach of contract claim could be enough. That being said, generally a building owner will want to assert both contractual and negligence claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwt.com\/blogs\/government-contracts-insider\/2025\/06\/oregon-supreme-court-twigg-project-insurance#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a>&nbsp;<em>Twigg v. Admiral Insurance Co.<\/em>, 373 Or 445, &#8212; P3d &#8212;- (2025).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwt.com\/blogs\/government-contracts-insider\/2025\/06\/oregon-supreme-court-twigg-project-insurance#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a>&nbsp;<em>Id.<\/em>&nbsp;at 471.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dwt.com\/blogs\/government-contracts-insider\/2025\/06\/oregon-supreme-court-twigg-project-insurance#_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a>&nbsp;<em>Id.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\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\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blake Robinson | Davis Wright Tremaine Key Takeaways On February 15, 2023, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a decision holding that a claim for breach of a settlement agreement did not trigger an insurance policy because a breach of contract was not an &#8220;accident&#8221; under the policy, even though the alleged breach was negligently&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/insurance-policy-meaning-of-accident-oregon\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Oregon Supreme Court Expands Meaning of &#8220;Accident&#8221; in Insurance Policy<\/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":[10721],"tags":[10234,9895,158,22,320],"class_list":["post-904588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance","tag-accident","tag-advise-consult","tag-breach-of-contract","tag-insurance","tag-oregon","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>Oregon Supreme Court Expands Meaning of &quot;Accident&quot; 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