Colony Ins. Co. v. Total Contracting & Roofing, Inc. (U.S. District Court S.D. Fla. 2011)
In this insurance coverage dispute, the Southern District of Florida was faced with cross-motions for summary judgment as to an insurer’s duty to indemnify its insured for damages arising out of the insured’s installation of defective drywall.
Before turning to the insurer’s motion, the court first summarily denied the plaintiff-claimants’ cross-motion for summary judgment, explaining that they were mere third-parties to the insurance contract at issue and thus had “no basis … to assume the role of the insured here and litigate this case as if they were [the insured].”
The court then turned to the insurer’s motion for summary judgment and noted that the parties were all in agreement that the defective drywall claims fell completely within a “hazardous materials exclusion” to the operative policy. The court considered the claimants’ argument that, based on all of the exclusions and limitations cited by the insurer in its declaratory judgment complaint, coverage under the policy was rendered illusory. The court rejected this argument explaining (i) that the “hazardous materials exclusion” did not render the policy illusory as a matter of law because it did not completely contradict the policy’s insuring provisions, and (ii) that the sheer number of exclusions cited in a declaratory complaint could not, standing alone, establish illusory coverage. The court accordingly entered the insurer’s motion for summary judgment.
Florida Insurance Coverage Law 