{"id":754,"date":"2006-11-21T16:02:39","date_gmt":"2006-11-22T00:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bullivant.wpengine.com\/?p=754"},"modified":"2021-03-21T13:38:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T20:38:49","slug":"california-supreme-court-declines-to-limit-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/california-supreme-court-declines-to-limit-under\/","title":{"rendered":"California Supreme Court declines to limit &#8220;under construction&#8221; exception to vacancy exclusion to new construction"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]TRB Investments, Inc. v. Fireman&#8217;s Fund Ins. Co., &#8212; Cal. Rptr. 3d &#8212; (2006), 2006 WL 3257848<\/p>\n<p>In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court has held that in the context of an exception to a vacancy exclusion, the phrase &#8220;under construction&#8221; may encompass not only new construction but also renovation of existing structures, so long as there are &#8220;substantial continuing activities&#8221; on the premises at the time of loss.<\/p>\n<p>The case involved water damage to an existing building that was unoccupied but in some stage of interior renovation. The insurer denied coverage, based on a vacancy exclusion. Relying on the exception to the exclusion for property &#8220;under construction,&#8221; the insured sued. The trial court granted summary judgment for the insurer, holding that &#8220;under construction&#8221; meant only construction of a new building. The Court of Appeal affirmed, but the Supreme Court reversed.<\/p>\n<p>Purporting to examine the meaning that a layperson would ascribe to &#8220;construction,&#8221; the court actually relied on technical definitions in several statutes and regulations for the conclusion that &#8220;construction&#8221; includes renovations. The court also determined that a broad interpretation was necessary to harmonize the exclusion with the policy&#8217;s cancellation provisions and avoid a potential &#8220;anomalous result.&#8221; However, the court remanded the case for further development of evidence because the record did not indicate whether there were in fact &#8220;substantial continuing activities&#8221; on the premises at the time of loss.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]TRB Investments, Inc. v. Fireman&#8217;s Fund Ins. Co., &#8212; Cal. Rptr. 3d &#8212; (2006), 2006 WL 3257848 In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court has held that in the context of an exception to a vacancy exclusion, the phrase &#8220;under construction&#8221; may encompass not only new construction but also renovation of existing structures, so&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[198],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance-coverage","tag-insights","authorormentioned-samuel-ruby","entry","no-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}