Shah v. Allstate Insurance

121 P.3d 1204, 130 Wash. App. 74
Court of Appeals of Washington·Decided September 12, 2005·No. No. 55232-5-I·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

¶1

Appklwick, J.

— Ratilal and Lalita Shah appeal the trial court’s dismissal of their case on summary judgment. The Shahs bought property, obtained a loan from Washington Mutual Bank (Washington Mutual) to pay for the property, and then obtained insurance on the property from Jerry Ljunggren, an agent with Allstate Insurance Company. The property burned down several years later, and although the Shahs were paid the limit of the policy, replacement of the home would have cost significantly more. The Shahs claim that Ljunggren was negligent because he underinsured the property, relied on incorrect information when creating the policy, and did not inform the Shahs of possible uninsured exposures. The Shahs also claim that Ljunggren negligently misrepresented to them that the policy was a replacement value policy and that he violated the Consumer Protection Act, chapter 19.86 RCW. We reverse and remand.

[78]*78FACTS

¶2 In February 2000, Ratilal and Lalita Shah agreed to buy a house in Bellevue for $760,000, for use as a rental property. Mrs. Shah has been a real estate agent for over 25 years, and the Shahs have bought numerous properties. Washington Mutual agreed to lend the Shahs $400,000 to buy the property. In conjunction with the loan, Washington Mutual required the Shahs to buy an insurance binder for the property.

¶3 The Shahs contacted Jerry Ljunggren, an Allstate agent with whom they had worked before, to get the binder. Mr. Shah testified that he told Ljunggren to send Washington Mutual whatever they needed and that he relied on Ljunggren to comply with the bank’s requirements. Washington Mutual faxed Ljunggren an appraisal of the property. The appraisal estimated the site value of the property as $480,000. The appraisal also estimated the cost to replace the improvements on the property new as $318,230. The appraisal estimated the total value of the property, using the cost approach, as $760,995.

f 4 Washington Mutual also provided to Ljunggren the form requesting the binder, which stated, among other things, that “[t]he coverages designated are the MINIMUMS required by Washington Mutual Bank.” The form did not specify how much coverage was required or whether the coverage was to be replacement coverage.1

¶5 Ljunggren entered information from the appraisal and information he had pulled from the property’s title records into the Allstate Cost Estimator (ACE) program, which generated an insurance value of $307,000. However, although the appraisal said that the house was about 3,771 square feet, including the basement, Ljunggren entered the home into the ACE as having only 2,070 square feet. Later [79]*79Ljunggren met with the Shahs to go over the policy and the application. Ljunggren testified that he does not know how the ACE program generates insurance values. Ljunggren also testified that it is not his practice to ask lenders what their requirements are, only to use the ACE to determine the insurance values.

¶6 Mr. Shah testified that in fall 2002, he was shopping around for insurance quotes from different companies, and he received a quote for a $700,000 policy on the property from another insurance company. Mr. Shah asked Ljunggren in October 2002 why the policy amount on the property was so low. Mr. Shah testified that Ljunggren told him not to worry, that he had replacement value.

¶7 The home burned down in November 2002. Allstate paid the Shahs about $330,000, which included the $307,000 policy limit and some additional money for debris removal and land damage. The total cost to rebuild the property was estimated anywhere between $513,675 and $589,350. The Shahs decided not to rebuild and sold the vacant land in spring 2003.

¶8 Alleging that they did not have adequate insurance coverage for the property, the Shahs filed suit against Ljunggren and Allstate in November 2003, and amended their complaint in September 2004. The Shahs claimed that Ljunggren was negligent in not placing adequate coverage on the property and failing to advise the Shahs of uninsured exposures. Specifically, the Shahs alleged that the insurance level set by Ljunggren did not meet Washington Mutual’s minimum requirements. The Shahs also alleged negligent misrepresentation and Consumer Protection Act violations, among several other claims.

¶9 Ljunggren and Allstate moved for summary judgment, and the trial court granted the motion. The court assumed Ljunggren breached a duty for purposes of the summary judgment motion. But the court found as a matter of law that, since the Shahs knew what the policy limit was and had real estate knowledge, they did not rely on Ljunggren with respect to the negligent misrepresentation [80]*80claim. The trial court also found that as to the other tort claims, “there is no demonstration of a proximate cause because of the intervening judgment and business decision of the plaintiff.”

ANALYSIS

I. Negligence Claim

¶10 The Shahs claim that the trial court erred in dismissing their negligence claims. The Shahs allege that the trial court erroneously concluded as a matter of law that Ljunggren’s acts were not the proximate cause of the Shahs’ loss. They claim that reasonable minds could have interpreted the evidence differently.

f 11 We review an appeal of a summary judgment de novo. Castro v. Stanwood Sch. Dist. No. 401, 151 Wn.2d 221, 224, 86 P.3d 1166 (2004). A summary judgment motion can be sustained only if there is no genuine issue of material fact, looking at all evidence and inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Pelton v. Tri-State Mem’l Hosp., Inc., 66 Wn. App. 350, 354, 831 P.2d 1147 (1992). Proximate causation is generally an issue for the fact finder. Attwood v. Albertson’s Food Ctrs., Inc., 92 Wn. App. 326, 330, 966 P.2d 351 (1998). Proximate cause has two elements: factual cause and legal cause. Schooley v. Pinch’s Deli Mkt., Inc., 134 Wn.2d 468, 474, 951 P.2d 749 (1998). While factual cause is based on an actual connection between an act and an injury, “legal cause is grounded in policy determinations as to how far the consequences of a defendant’s acts should extend.” Schooley, 134 Wn.2d at 478.

¶12 In the Shahs’ amended complaint, they alleged that Ljunggren was negligent because he failed to follow the Shahs’ instructions to place coverage that met Washington Mutual’s minimum coverage requirements. They also alleged he was negligent in failing to advise them as to possible uninsured exposures. The Shahs further allege that Ljunggren breached his duty by using incorrect infor[81]*81mation to create the quote and by using a software program that he could not explain, so that the Shahs were unable to make an informed decision. While agreeing with the Shahs for the purposes of summary judgment that Ljunggren may have breached his duty, the trial court ruled against the Shahs on the issue of causation:

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Shah v. Allstate Insurance, 121 P.3d 1204, 130 Wash. App. 74 (Wash. Ct. App. 2005).

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