656 Logan St. Condo. Ass'n, Inc. v. Owners Ins. Co.

389 F. Supp. 3d 946
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedJune 18, 2019
DocketCivil Action No. 17-cv-1533-WJM-MJW
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 389 F. Supp. 3d 946 (656 Logan St. Condo. Ass'n, Inc. v. Owners Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
656 Logan St. Condo. Ass'n, Inc. v. Owners Ins. Co., 389 F. Supp. 3d 946 (D. Colo. 2019).

Opinion

William J. Martinez, United States District Judge

This is an insurance coverage dispute. Plaintiff 656 Logan Street Condominium Association, Inc. ("Plaintiff"), sues Defendant Owners Insurance Company ("Defendant") based on Defendant's refusal to cover losses allegedly resulting from a June 2015 hail storm. Currently before the Court is Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment. (ECF No. 56.) For the reasons explained below, the Court grants this motion and will enter judgment in favor of Defendant.1

I. LEGAL STANDARD

Summary judgment is warranted under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 "if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a) ; see also Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. , 477 U.S. 242, 248-50, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A fact is "material" if, under the relevant substantive law, it is essential to proper disposition of the claim. Wright v. Abbott Labs., Inc. , 259 F.3d 1226, 1231-32 (10th Cir. 2001). An issue is "genuine" if the evidence is such that it might lead a reasonable trier of fact to return a verdict for the nonmoving party. Allen v. Muskogee , 119 F.3d 837, 839 (10th Cir. 1997).

In analyzing a motion for summary judgment, a court must view the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Adler v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , 144 F.3d 664, 670 (10th Cir. 1998) (citing Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp. , 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986) ). In addition, the Court must resolve factual ambiguities against the moving party, thus favoring the right to a trial. See *948Houston v. Nat'l Gen. Ins. Co. , 817 F.2d 83, 85 (10th Cir. 1987).

II. FACTS

The following facts are undisputed unless attributed to a party or otherwise noted.

A. The Property and the Two Hail Storms

"The 656 Logan property ['Property'] is ... a single three-story residential building containing nineteen condominium apartments. The building is covered with a smooth-surfaced polymer-modified bitumen roof membrane that has been painted with a reflective silver-colored coating." (ECF No. 69 at 14.)2

A hail storm struck the Property on June 24, 2015. (ECF No. 56 at 4, ¶¶ 3-4.) The parties dispute the size of the hail. Plaintiff claims the storm produced hail of up to two-and-a-half inches in diameter at the Property. (ECF No. 69 at 9, ¶ 1.)3 Defendant claims that the hail stones were approximately one inch in diameter. (ECF No. 56 at 8, 11, ¶¶ 31, 43; ECF No. 73 at 2, ¶ 31.)

Slightly more than a year later-on June 28, 2016-another hail storm struck the Property. (ECF No. 56 at 4, ¶¶ 4-5.) The hail stones were approximately one inch in diameter. (Id. )

B. Inspection for Hail Damage in Early 2017

A new property manager, HOA Simple, began servicing Plaintiff and the Property on January 1, 2017. (ECF No. 56 at 5, ¶ 13.) HOA Simple was, at that time, also managing a similar condominium building less than a mile from the Property. (Id. ¶ 15.) HOA Simple had previously filed an insurance claim for hail damage on the other condominium building arising from the June 2015 storm. (Id. at 6, ¶ 16.) HOA Simple decided, based on proximity, that if the June 2015 storm damaged the other building, it probably damaged the Property. (Id. ¶¶ 18-19.)

HOA Simple hired a contractor, LR Contracting, to inspect the Property's roof in February 2017, and the contractor reported hail damage. (Id. ¶ 20.) On March 14, 2017, Plaintiff hired C3 Group as its public adjuster to assist it in filing an insurance claim. (Id. ¶ 21.) C3 Group and LR Contracting then "had conversations regarding which date of loss to choose for the ... hail claim," with the two candidates being the June 2015 and June 2016 storms. (Id. at 7, ¶ 22.)

Defendant was Plaintiff's property insurer from December 30, 2014 through December 30, 2015. (Id. at 3, ¶ 1.) A different insurer covered the Property in 2016. (Id. at 11, ¶ 45.) Through some process (not obvious in the record), C3 Group and LR Contracting elected to make a claim for the June 24, 2015 storm, meaning a claim on the policy issued by Defendant. Accordingly, on April 5, 2017-about twenty-one months after the June 2015 storm-Plaintiff submitted a claim to Defendant for hail damage caused by that storm. (Id. at 7, ¶ 24.)

C. Defendant's Initial Investigation

Defendant assigned a claims coordinator, Mr. Daniel Fossen, to Plaintiff's claim.

*949(ECF No. 69 at 10, ¶ 8.) Fossen received from C3 Group a report of weather data for the evening of June 24, 2015. (Id. ¶ 9.) The report purports to document hail falling at the property on that date, with a maximum size of two-and-a-half inches. (ECF No. 69-6.)

Fossen inspected the Property's roof on May 15, 2017. (ECF No. 69 at 10, ¶ 10.) He identified hail damage that, in his view, was serious enough to merit roof replacement. (Id.

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Bluebook (online)
389 F. Supp. 3d 946, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/656-logan-st-condo-assn-inc-v-owners-ins-co-cod-2019.