Commercial Building Owner Receives Insurance Coverage

Our client owned a historic commercial building on North Broad Street in Philadelphia. After a significant weather event caused a section of the brick masonry at the front façade to fall from the building, our client was looking at damages totaling a couple hundred of thousands of dollars.

When the client made a claim to their insurance carrier for the extensive damage caused to the building structure, the claim was flatly denied.  

Taking Action Against a Denied Insurance Claim

We were retained to compel the insurance carrier to perform its obligation under the policy then in effect. We immediately filed a lawsuit against the insurance carrier in state court for breach of terms and conditions of the insurance policy. In addition, we sought a declaration from the state court that the insurance carrier should cover the cost of repairing the building façade, as per the terms and conditions of the insurance policy.

A Favorable Settlement on the Eve of Trial

To counter, the insurance carrier then moved the pending litigation to federal court because the amount of controversy exceeded the sum of $75,000 and due to the diversity of where the parties were doing business. After performing extensive discovery on the insurance carrier and filing several impactful motions, we were prepared to appear at trial to make our case to the trial court judge.

On the evening of trial, the insurance carrier elected to amicably resolve the pending litigation with our client by agreeing to pay almost the entire amount our client sought for the cost of repairing the building façade.