Studio Frames Ltd. v. Standard Fire Insurance

483 F.3d 239, 2007 WL 1080433
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedApril 12, 2007
Docket05-2063, 05-2342
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 483 F.3d 239 (Studio Frames Ltd. v. Standard Fire Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Studio Frames Ltd. v. Standard Fire Insurance, 483 F.3d 239, 2007 WL 1080433 (4th Cir. 2007).

Opinions

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge MICHAEL wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge MOTZ joined. Judge NIEMEYER wrote a dissenting opinion.

OPINION

MICHAEL, Circuit Judge:

This appeal involves contractual and statutory coverage issues under a Standard Flood Insurance Policy issued pursuant to the National Flood Insurance Program. In a summary judgment awarding coverage to an insured tenant, the district court held that the tenant’s leasehold improvements were insured under the building coverage portion of the policy and that the statutory cap on the dollar amount of coverage available did not bar the tenant from acquiring coverage, see 42 U.S.C. § 4013(b)(4). We affirm the summary judgment order. In the cross-appeal we affirm the district court’s order denying pre- and post-judgment interest to the tenant because the federal flood insurance program is not a commercial enterprise.

I.

Studio Frames Ltd., a small art gallery, leases a store in the Eastgate Shopping Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The shopping center is owned by Federal [242]*242Realty Trust Investments (Federal Realty). In 1996 Hurricane Fran caused flood damage to Studio Frames’s gallery. Studio Frames, which did not have flood insurance, obtained a disaster relief loan from the Small Business Administration. A loan condition required Studio Frames to buy flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to cover the contents of the gallery and leasehold improvements made by the gallery. Thus, in 1996 Studio Frames bought a Standard Flood Insurance Policy (SFIP) from Standard Fire Insurance Company (Standard Fire), a private insurer authorized to sell federal flood insurance under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s “Write Your Own” or “WYO” program. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 4071(a), 4081; 44 C.F.R. §§ 62.23, 62.24.

An SFIP provides coverage for both real and personal property. Coverage A, or building coverage, covers the “entire building” as well as “fixtures, machinery and equipment.” J.A. 144. Coverage B, or contents coverage, covers the insured’s personal property located within the building. The contents coverage portion of an SFIP provides that a tenant “may apply up to 10% of the amount of insurance applicable to the personal property covered under this item, not as an amount of additional insurance, to cover loss to improvements to” the building made at the tenant’s expense. J.A. 145. Studio Frames’s policy listed $194,700 in building coverage and $287,200 in contents coverage. Studio Frames paid a premium that reflected the cost of these amounts of insurance.

On July 23-24, 2000, Studio Frames again suffered severe flood damage, and it immediately reported the event to Standard Fire. During the investigation of Studio Frames’s loss, Standard Fire learned that Studio Frames did not own the building that housed the art gallery but instead leased the space from Federal Realty. Standard Fire further learned that Federal Realty had obtained in 1995, and continued to maintain, a $500,000 federal flood insurance policy with First Community Insurance Company to cover the building that housed Studio Frames’s gallery. An adjuster for Standard Fire notified Studio Frames that it could not recover for losses to its leasehold improvements under the SFIP’s building coverage provisions because it did not own the building. The adjuster explained, however, that Studio Frames could make a claim for leasehold improvement losses in an amount equal to ten percent of the contents coverage policy limit.

On September 20, 2000, Studio Frames submitted a proof of loss to Standard Fire. The gallery requested $287,200, the policy limit for contents coverage, and stated that it was reserving the right to file an additional proof of loss for damage to its leasehold improvements. (Studio Frames did not file the additional proof of loss because it believed Standard Fire had breached the policy when it took the position that the building coverage portion of the policy did not apply to the gallery.) Standard Fire disagreed with Studio Frames’s assessment of its contents losses. After several months of negotiations, Standard Fire paid $143,336.27 under the policy’s contents coverage provision, allocated .as follows: $114,616.27 for damage to inventory and $28,720 for damage to the leasehold improvements (ten percent of the contents coverage policy limit). Standard Fire also attempted to refund to Studio Frames the premiums it had paid for building coverage under the policy.

Thereafter Studio Frames sued Standard Fire in federal court for breach of contract, seeking (in the claim relevant to this appeal) $132,597.05 under the building [243]*243coverage portion of the policy. ■ The district court granted summary judgment to Standard Fire, concluding that Studio Frames was barred from recovery under the building coverage portion of the policy because the gallery had failed to submit a proof of loss for its leasehold improvements. In the appeal that followed, .this court determined that Studio Frames’s failure to submit a proof of loss would not preclude recovery if Standard Fire had repudiated the policy’s building coverage before a proof of loss was due. Studio Frames Ltd. v. Standard Fire Ins. Co., 369 F.3d 376, 383 (4th Cir.2004). We remanded for further proceedings, noting that Standard Fire did not repudiate the policy unless it “was mistaken in its belief that the SFIP forbade it from offering [building] coverage to Studio Frames.” Id.

On remand the district court concluded that Standard Fire had repudiated the policy because nothing in the SFIP prohibited building coverage for leasehold improvements. The court granted summary judgment to Studio Frames, holding that the gallery had building coverage and was entitled to $132,597.05 for damages to its leasehold improvements. Studio Frames Ltd. v. Standard Fire Ins. Co., 397 F.Supp.2d 674 (M.D.N.C.2005). The court later denied Studio Frames’s motion for pre- and post-judgment interest. Standard Fire appeals the summary judgment, contending that Studio Frames is not insured for its leasehold improvements under the building coverage portion of the SFIP. It argues, in the alternative, that Studio Frames has no building coverage because the statutory coverage limit was previously exhausted by Federal Realty’s $500,000 SFIP on the building. See 42 U.S.C. § 4013(b)(4). Studio Frames cross appeals the district court’s order denying it pre- and post-judgment interest. Our review of the issues is de novo. Battle v. Seibels Bruce Ins. Co., 288 F.3d 596, 603 (4th Cir.2002).

II.

We begin with a discussion of the purpose and nature of the National Flood Insurance Program created by Congress in ■ 1968. See National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, Pub.L. 90-448, 82 Stat. 572 (1968).

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483 F.3d 239, 2007 WL 1080433, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/studio-frames-ltd-v-standard-fire-insurance-ca4-2007.