While the insured was able to carry his burden to show the collapse of a roof, he failed to establish damages under the policy. Iannucci v. Allstate Ins. Co., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 203687 (N.D. N.Y. Dec. 3, 2018).
In 2005, the insured purchased a parcel of land together with a three-story building constructed in 1870. No one resided in the building at the time of purchase or afterward. The building was not well maintained and all utilities were shut off. No work was done on the building between 2005 and 2014. Between 2011 and 2014, the Fire Department issued multiple zoning/ordinance violation notices ordering the insured to make various improvements to the building and property. A notice issued in October 2013 stated that “the roof on your house needs to be replaced.” Before any work was done on the roof, however, it collapsed during a snowstorm on February 21, 2014.
The insured’s all-risk policy excluded loss caused by such things as enforcement of building codes, failure to preserve property, wear and tear, aging, and faulty, inadequate or defective maintenance. The policy covered collapse, however, for “(a) the entire collapse of a covered building structure; (b) the entire collapse of part of a covered building structure; and (c) direct physical loss to covered property caused by (a) or (b).” The collapse had to be “sudden and accidental” and caused by, among other things, weight of snow which collected on a roof.
On March 5, 2013, the fire department issued a violation notice directing the insured to demolish the building because the roof had collapsed. The City’s file indicated that the roof’s collapse had been caused by the accumulation of snow. The insured notified Allstate. A claims adjuster visited the property and photographed extensive damage to the building. Allstate denied the claim based upon an expert’s report that the cause of the roof collapse was the lack of adequate and timely maintenance. Allstate cited several additional exclusions, including enforcement of building codes, failure to preserve property, wear and tear, and inadequate maintenance in denying the claim.
The insured sued and a bench trial was conducted. The court found that the collapse of the roof was sudden, but the “entire collapse” of the building was not. The insured therefore failed to prove that the loss of the building structure was within coverage under the policy, even if the collapse of the roof was covered.
The policy stated it did “not cover loss to covered property . . . when :(a) there are two or more causes of loss to the covered property; and (b) the predominant cause(s) of loss is (are) excluded” from coverage. Here, the evidence did not show that any cause was predominant to the weight of snow in directly bringing about the collapse of the roof. Instead, the preponderance of the evidence indicated that the most direct and obvious cause of the collapse of the roof was the weight of the snow. Allstate failed to prove that any of the other causes, such as inadequate maintenance – considered separately or together – predominated over the weight of the snow as the efficient cause of the collapse.
Therefore, the insured carried his burden to prove coverage for collapse of the roof. Nevertheless, the insured failed to establish the value of his loss under the policy. The insured failed to provide any evidence regarding the value of the roof or from which to infer its value, e.g., the market value of the building before and after the collapse or the cost of replacing the roof with one of like kind or quality. Allstate, on the other hand, established that the roof was worthless. Accordingly, the insured was not entitled to damages for the loss of the roof.