The “Water Damage” exclusion incorporated in many property insurance policies is the subject of much litigation, including the scope and applicability of the “surface water” exclusion to various water damage scenarios. The New York Appellate Division, Fourth Department recently interpreted the application of the “surface water” exclusion where the source of water was not from natural precipitation. This is the second New York decision to interpret the meaning of “surface water” in the context of a property insurance policy.
Continue Reading The Water Exclusion: New York’s Fourth Department Interprets The Definition of Surface Water

For the second time in two months, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was called upon to decide whether or not property damage was covered when the damage resulted from a combination of a covered peril and an excluded peril. Once again, the court upheld the policy’s enforceable anti-concurrent causation language, finding that coverage was precluded.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently considered the interplay between “hidden seepage” coverage, and a “surface water” exclusion, holding that the policy’s enforceable anti-concurrent causation language made all the difference in the court’s conclusion that a loss caused by surface water seeping into a structure was excluded.

In Boazova v. Safety Insurance Company, Docket No.