A Liberty Mutual Insurance Group unit is not obligated to either pay rebuilding expenses or the cost of debris removal for a Vermont livestock barn’s 2014 collapse, said the Vermont Supreme Court on Friday, in reversing one lower court ruling, and affirming a second.

Strong winds that blew through the town of Georgia, Vermont, in 2014 caused the collapse of a partially constructed livestock barn that was being built by Ferrisburgh, Vermont-based Commercial Construction Endeavors Inc., according to Friday’s unanimous ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court in Commercial Construction Endeavors Inc. vs. Ohio Security Insurance Co.

A disagreement between Commercial Construction and Liberty Mutual unit Ohio Security Insurance Co. developed as to indemnifying for rebuilding expenses and the cost of debris removal.

A lower court held that the contractor’s rebuilding expenses were covered under the policy, but the cost of debris removal was not. The state’s high court agreed the cost of debris removal was not covered but held also that the contractors rebuilding expenses were not covered under the policy as well.

Ohio Security had determined Commercial Construction was at fault in the collapse because the barn was not properly braced to withstand weather conditions, and the resulting losses were covered under a policy endorsement, according to the ruling.

It paid Commercial Construction $24,750, the full amount available under an off-premises endorsement less an applicable $250 deductible, according to the ruling.

Liberty Mutual indicated the off-premises endorsement payment exhausted the coverage available under the policy, but Commercial Construction asserted coverage was also available under a “property floater coverage form,” which Ohio Security denied, according to the ruling.

Policy language “specifically and unambiguously limits” grant of coverage to “Covered Property,” said the ruling. Commercial Construction “does not dispute that the barn was not business personal property and thus was not “Covered Property,” said the ruling in reversing the lower court.

The insurer’s attorney had no comment while Commercial Construction’s attorney could not be reached.

A divided appeals court affirmed a lower court earlier this month and held a Liberty Mutual unit must indemnify a company scammed out of more than $1.7 million in a phishing incident under its commercial crime insurance policy.