NEW ORLEANS – A federal judge granted a motion for partial summary judgment to the defendant in a case that alleged fire damages to buildings and property in New Orleans.
U.S. District Chief Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown granted the defendant's motion for partial summary judgment because the plaintiff did not contest the motion, her order states.
Burk Property Investments filed a claim in U.S. District Court for the Louisiana Eastern District against Illinois Union Insurance Co. over payments for damages to the plaintiff's buildings and property on Pauline Street in New Orleans.
Illinois Union Insurance Co. won a partial summary judgement over soft costs and delays its policyholder claimed were due.
| Morguefile
The insurance company filed its motion for summary judgment against payment for soft costs and delays under the insurance policy.
"A federal district court may grant an unopposed motion if the motion has merit," Judge Brown wrote in the April 13 order. "Considering the motion, memorandum in support, record, and applicable law, the Court grants the motion for partial summary judgment."
The partial summary judgment involves "soft costs" which the defendant, Illinois Union Insurance Company, claims are not covered under the policy. The plaintiff was seeking $20,046 in soft costs and $33,052 for the estimated cost of the delay in repairing the buildings, according to the order.
Brown believed that the policy's language was clear regarding delay costs and that there were no genuine issues of material fact despite the claims for soft costs.
Burk Property Investments filed the lawsuit in 2019, alleging that they notified the insurance company of fire damage on Oct. 30, 2017, and provided the company with proof of loss for the damaged buildings several times. The proof of loss was valued at $185,106.33 and the defendant failed to provide payment of the money within 30 or 60 days.
Burk initially sought $240,705 from the insurance company. Of that amount, $185,106.33 was hard costs, $20,046.78 of it was soft costs and $33,052.50 was for what the plaintiff called costly delays. Illinois Unions Insurance paid the plaintiff $185,106.33, the order said.
"If the contract is clear and unambiguous and does not have absurd consequences, the court applies the ordinary meaning of the contractual language," Brown wrote. "If the insurance policy contains ambiguous provisions, the ambiguity 'must be resolved by construing the policy as a whole.'"
Brown granted the motion and wrote that they were no genuine issues of material fact in dispute.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana case number 2:19-cv-01787