News & Events

Jesse Groves recently obtained a final summary judgment in a first-party property insurance case in Manatee County, which was affirmed by the Second District Court of Appeals.  Plaintiff filed her lawsuit against Defendant after the subject claim for water damage was denied based on the policy exclusion for Continuous or Repeated Seepage or Leakage over a period of time.  Defendant filed its Motion for Summary Judgment based on expert opinion that the damages were the result of a repetitive shower leak that occurred for at least six months.  Plaintiff filed an expert affidavit in opposition to the MSJ, which asserted that the damage was the result of a “sudden and accidental” leak. 

The Court initially denied the MSJ based on the fact dispute created by the competing expert opinions.  However, during the subsequent deposition of Plaintiff’s expert, it was established that the “sudden and accidental” leak, in Plaintiff’s experts’ own opinion, was ongoing for “at least a few days.”  Based on clarification of the Plaintiff’s expert’s opinion, the Court determined there was no material fact dispute because the difference between “six months” and a “few days” was irrelevant to the policy language, and rejected the Plaintiff’s secondary argument that the exclusion was ambiguous.