Appeals court affirms ruling in favor of Liberty Mutual unit
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court ruling in litigation filed by a metal products company against a Liberty Mutual Insurance Group unit over damage caused by 2018’s Hurricane Michael.
Metal Products LLC filed a claim with Liberty Mutual unit Ohio Security Insurance Co. for hurricane damage to the exterior and interior of its two buildings in Marianna, Florida, but received payment only for wind damage to the roof of one building, according to the ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in Metal Products Co., LLC v. Ohio Security Insurance Co.
The insurer paid Metal Products $61,717 for lost income and the actual cash value of wind damage for one building, but nothing for a second building because its windstorm deductible exceeded its damages, the ruling said. The company had submitted an estimate that calculated a total “replacement cost value” of $818,745.
Metal Products filed suit against the insurer in U.S. District Court in Panama City, Florida. The court ruled in the insurer’s favor, holding there was no evidence Ohio Security had breached its contract by refusing to pay for interior damage not covered under the policy and noted that the company had not repaired the damage to the property as required for payment of the replacement cost value.
A three-judge appeals court panel upheld the ruling.
Ohio Security attorney Hudson Jones, a partner with Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig LLP in Tampa, Florida, said in a statement he was pleased with the ruling.
Metal Products’ attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
