Court Finds Policy Term, “Windstorm,” to be Ambiguous in Coverage Dispute Involving Tornado

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Court Finds Policy Term, “Windstorm,” to be Ambiguous in Coverage Dispute Involving Tornado


In Mankoff v. Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (2024 WL 322297 (Tex. App.—Dallas Jan. 29, 2024)), the Court decided that the time period “windstorm” was ambiguous as utilized within the topic insurance coverage coverage.

The insureds suffered property injury attributable to a twister and subsequently submitted a declare to their insurer.  The insurer paid solely a portion of the declare as a result of it maintained that the twister that struck and broken the property was a “windstorm” and, subsequently, the declare was topic to the coverage’s “Windstorm or Hail Deductible.”  That provision said:

5.  Deductible

Unless in any other case famous on this coverage, the bottom deductible or one of many particular deductibles proven in your Declarations or by endorsement is the quantity of a coated loss you’ll pay.

Windstorm or Hail Deductible

In the occasion of direct bodily loss to property coated beneath this coverage triggered instantly or not directly by windstorm or hail, the Windstorm or Hail deductible listed in your Declarations is the quantity of the coated loss for dwelling, different constructions and contents that you’ll pay.  The Windstorm or Hail deductible doesn’t apply to protection beneath 7. Loss of Use.  The Windstorm or Hail deductible applies no matter another trigger or occasion contributing concurrently or in any sequence.

The coverage additionally included a base deductible which was waived for coated losses apart from these attributable to a windstorm, hail, or earthquake:

Court Finds Policy Term, “Windstorm,” to be Ambiguous in Coverage Dispute Involving Tornado

Waiver of Deductible

For a coated loss attributable to a peril apart from windstorm or hail or earthquake that’s higher than $50,000, we are going to waive the bottom deductible.  This waiver of deductible solely applies if the bottom deductible proven in your Declarations is $25,000 or much less.

This waiver of deductible doesn’t apply to particular deductibles for windstorm or hail or earthquake.  This waiver of deductible additionally doesn’t apply to a particular building deductible.

Consequently, the insureds sued to get better the withheld deductible arguing that the twister that triggered the injury was not a windstorm and, in consequence, their deductible was waived.

In construing the time period “windstorm,” the Court famous that its major concern was to establish the events’ intentions as expressed within the coverage.  As the coverage didn’t outline “windstorm,” the Court thought of its frequent, abnormal that means whereas studying the time period “in context and in light of the rules of grammar and common usage.”  This additionally included using dictionaries and its utilization in different authorities.

On the one hand, in assist of their place, the insureds offered the next examples:

  • Definition  of “windstorm” from Encyclopedia Britannica: “a wind that is strong enough to cause at least light damage to trees and buildings and may or may not be accompanied by precipitation.  Wind speeds during a Windstorm typically exceed 55 km (34 miles) per hour.  Wind damage can be attributed to gusts (short bursts of high-speed winds) or longer periods of stronger sustained winds.  Although tornadoes and tropical cyclones also produce wind damage, they are usually classified separately…”
  • Expert testimony from an authorized meteorologist who said that tornadoes and windstorms are materially completely different in the way in which they’re measured, categorized, warned about, and outlined throughout the meteorological career.  In his report, the meteorologist said that the National Weather Service doesn’t concern any alerts or warnings for windstorms because it does for tornadoes.  He additional said that the American Meteorological Society’s Glossary of Terms (“AMS Glossary”) doesn’t outline a twister as a windstorm, nor does it point out a twister within the definition of a windstorm.  The definition of twister within the AMS Glossary additionally signifies that different climate occasions involving swirling winds, resembling gustnadoes and mud devils, are categorized otherwise than a twister.
  • Media protection of climate occasions in Dallas as proof that the 2 are categorized individually.  For instance, in June 2019, a windstorm with straight-line winds hit Dallas.  The Dallas Morning News described that occasion as a windstorm, not a twister.
  • Several statutes consult with windstorms and tornadoes as distinct dangers: Tex. Ins. Code § 252.003 (insurers are permitted to promote separate insurance policies for tornadoes and windstorms and are taxed accordingly); Tex. Ins. Code. § 1806.102(b)(12)(A) (stating subchapter C of chapter 1806 of the Code doesn’t apply to the writing of “insurance coverage for any of the following conditions or risks: (A) weather or climatic conditions, including lightning, tornado, windstorm, hail, cyclone, rain, or frost and freeze”); Tex. Prop. Code. § 92.0562 (a landlord might delay repairs “if the landlord’s failure to repair is caused by a general shortage of labor or materials for repair following a natural disaster such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, extended freeze, or widespread windstorm.”); Tex. Ins. Code § 542A.001(2)(C) (defining “claim” as a first-party declare arising “from damage to or loss of covered property caused, wholly or partly, by forces of nature, including an earthquake or earth tremor, a wildfire, a flood, a tornado, lightning, a hurricane, hail, wind, a snowstorm, or a rainstorm.”); Tex. Ins. Code § 2002.006 (referring to tornadoes, windstorms, hail, cyclones, rain, frost, freeze, and lightning as separate “weather or climatic conditions”).

On the opposite hand, the insurer made the next arguments in assist of its rivalry {that a} twister is a kind of windstorm and that the deductible “unambiguously applies to damage caused by a tornado”:

  • In Fireman’s Ins. Co. of Newark, N.J. v. Weatherman (193 S.W.second 247 (Tex. App.—Eastland 1946)), on attraction, the Court concluded that the trial court docket sufficiently outlined “windstorm” as: “something more than an ordinary gust of wind, no matter how prolonged, and though the whirling features which usually accompany tornadoes and cyclones need not be present, it must assume the aspect of a storm.”

In Mankoff, the insurer asserted that the definition of “windstorm” authorised in Weatherman had been persistently adopted in Texas instances and, thus, the time period was not ambiguous.  However, the Court famous that neither Weatherman nor any of the opposite instances cited by the insurer decided whether or not the time period “windstorm” was an unambiguous time period as a matter of legislation or whether or not “tornado” was encompassed within the time period “windstorm.”

  • Texas instances have uniformly utilized windstorm protection to wreck attributable to tornadoes.  Nevertheless, the Court defined that in these instances, the events didn’t dispute an insured’s declare for twister injury in insurance policies overlaying windstorm injury, and the courts didn’t analyze the definition of windstorm or decide if the time period was ambiguous.
  • Various dictionary definitions of “tornado” describing it as a violent storm with whirling winds or a violently rotating column of air, and, in two definitions, describing a twister as “a localized, violently destructive windstorm occurring over land” and “a highly localized, violent windstorm occurring over land.” 
  • One thesaurus, which included “windstorm” as one in all ten synonyms of a twister.
  • The National Weather Service categorizes tornados primarily based on wind velocity.

In gentle of those positions, the Court held that the time period “windstorm” as used within the coverage was fairly inclined to a couple of that means, and that it was subsequently ambiguous.  It defined that the events “cite[d] authorities defining ‘windstorm’ in different ways,” and “definitions provided by those authorities were facially reasonable but conflicting.”  The Court additionally concluded that as a result of the insureds’ interpretation of the time period was cheap, it was required to construe the deductible of their favor.

Conclusion

As demonstrated in Mankoff, strains might be drawn to differentiate in any other case seemingly congruous phrases.  For that motive, insurers are suggested to include specific definitions in all coverage kinds.  Failure to take action may open the door to conflicting interpretations and findings of ambiguities.  While phrases might seem plain on their face, insurers and their underwriters ought to seek the advice of with trade specialists as a prudent method to mitigate litigation publicity.

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