Our client’s home was severely damaged because of the vibrations and underground shock waves caused by nearby bridge construction. This type of damage is often covered by your homeowners insurance. This is true even if the insurance policy has an exclusion for “earth movement.” (Those exclusions typically only exclude naturally occurring earth movement, not man-made
Earth Movement
Lawsuit Filed For Sinkhole Damage
By Mark Nation on
My client’s home was built in 1979. He recently began seeing cracks in the walls, around windows, and in the ceiling. He reported the cracking to his homeowners insurer – Universal Property and Casualty Insurance Company. Universal had an engineer inspect the home. The insurance company’s engineer wrote a report stating that the cracks in…
Nationwide Required to Pay for the Cost of Tearing Out and Replacing Leaky Plumbing
By Mark Nation on
Posted in Earth Movement, Homeowners Insurance
In Liebel v. Nationwide Insurance Company of Florida, ____ So.3d ____ (Fla. 4th DCA October 7, 2009), the homeowner had a leaky plumbing system which led to subsidence under the home, which in turn led to damage to the home itself. Nationwide refused to pay for the damage to the home under an exclusion for…
Good Pleading Gets Around “Earth Movement Exclusion,” and State Farm’s Internal Operating Guides are Admitted into Evidence
By Mark Nation on
Posted in Earth Movement
Castillo v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Company, 32 FLW D2474a (Fla. 3rd DCA October 17, 2007)
In this case, the insured homeowner alleged that “nearby blasting created shockwaves and vibrations which damaged the insured dwelling without displacement or permanent displacement of the earth” and that the amount for the repair “of the blasting damages” was
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