Wanamaker Nursery, Inc. v. John Deere Risk Prot., Inc.

364 F. Supp. 3d 839
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 27, 2019
DocketCase No. 4:17-cv-77
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 364 F. Supp. 3d 839 (Wanamaker Nursery, Inc. v. John Deere Risk Prot., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wanamaker Nursery, Inc. v. John Deere Risk Prot., Inc., 364 F. Supp. 3d 839 (E.D. Tenn. 2019).

Opinion

Christopher H. Steger, UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

With an estimated population of 10 quintillion,1 insects are all around us. Equally at home in cities, forests and fields, they pollinate our plants and compete with us for the food we eat. At times beautiful and benign-at other times annoying, loathsome and destructive-we share with them our homes, workplaces, recreational spaces, and conveyances-in short, our world. By and large, our relationship with our six-legged co-habitants is unwittingly (at least for most of us) symbiotic; however, there are times when humans and insects compete directly. And, at such times, we are reminded that the age-old curse-"plague of locusts"2 -is not just apocryphal.

The Plaintiffs herein-the Wanamakers-experienced such a "plague" first hand when hungry insects devoured the plants in their nursery in 2009. This disaster prompted them to file claims against their insurer, FMH Risk Protection, Inc. ("FMH"), under seven different insurance policies. FMH initially denied payment under all of seven policies. The parties then submitted the claims to arbitration, where the arbitrator, through a conditional award, required the Wanamakers to submit *842additional documentation to FMH. Following receipt of such documentation, the arbitrator directed FMH to re-open its claims process and reconsider the Wanamakers' claims in light of the new documents. FMH determined that the Wanamakers were entitled to recover under one of the seven policies, so FMH paid that claim. The arbitrator then made his final award, finding that FMH paid all amounts properly owed under the policies.

Following the arbitrator's final decision, the Wanamakers filed suit, seeking judicial review of the decision [Doc. 1]. In response, FMH filed a motion for summary judgment, contending that the Court must uphold the arbitrator's final award under the Federal Arbitration Act [Doc. 19].

I. Factual Summary

The Wanamakers operate several ornamental plant nurseries in Warren County and Grundy County, Tennessee. To protect their crops, they purchased several crop-insurance policies from FMH, identified as follows:

Policy No. Insured Location 48111-09 Wanamaker Nursery, Inc. Grundy County 48124-09 Timothy Wanamaker Warren County 48125-09 Timothy Wanamaker Grundy County 48128-09 Andrea Wanamaker Grundy County 48129-09 Andrea Wanamaker Warren County 48130-09 Ashley Wanamaker Warren County 48133-09 Wanamaker Nursery, Inc. Warren County

The Federal Crop Insurance Act, 7 U.S.C. § 1501 et seq. , and corresponding regulations under Title VII, Chapter IV of the Code of Federal Regulations, govern the insurance policies in this case. Such policies are written on standardized contracts promulgated and regulated by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation ("FCIC"), a wholly owned government corporation managed by the Risk Management Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In 2009, the Wanamakers submitted claims to their insurer, FMH, under the above-referenced policies for losses occasioned by insect infestation. When FMH received those claims, FMH was obligated-under the insurance policies and applicable regulations-to verify that the total inventory value for each category of nursery plants was within 110% of either the actual inventory value of those plants at the time insurance attached or the highest dollar amount of sales of that category of plants over the previous three years. FMH found that the Wanamakers' policies failed to meet either of those threshold requirements, so it denied all of their claims. Each insurance policy contained an arbitration clause. The Wanamakers initiated arbitration to contest FMH's determination that it would not indemnify them for their losses.

The arbitrator conducted a hearing and issued a conditional award [Doc. 19-5] instructing the Wanamakers to provide FMH with additional documents and directing FMH to re-evaluate the claims after receipt such documentation. After the Wanamakers provided the requisite documents, FMH determined that one of the insurance policies-Policy 48125-09-met the 110% threshold requirement, resulting in a payout to the Wanamakers of $ 133,650. FMH determined that the remaining six policies still did not meet the threshold requirements under the insurance policies.

The arbitrator then issued his final award [Doc. 19-6] concluding that FMH "has paid all claim amounts that are proper *843and no additional indemnity related to the 2009 claim on any policy is owed to the [Wanamakers]. The [Wanamakers'] claims asserted herein ... are hereby denied in their entirety, and dismissed with prejudice." [Id. at PageID #: 105].

The Wanamakers then filed suit3 to contest the arbitrator's findings [See Doc. 1]. They point to Section 20(c) of their insurance policies' Basic Provisions, which states that: "Any decision rendered in arbitration is binding on you and us unless judicial review is sought ...." [Doc. 19-2 at PageID #: 78]. Based on that provision, the Wanamakers' claim that Section 20(c) grants the court authority to perform a de novo review of the arbitrator's decision. The Wanamakers also brought a bad-faith claim against FMH under Tennessee law.

FMH responded with a summary judgment motion [Doc. 19] asserting that the Court's review is limited under the Federal Arbitration Act; collateral estoppel precludes the Wanamakers' claims; and federal law preempts their bad-faith claim. The Wanamakers countered that they are entitled to vacatur even if the Federal Arbitration Act applies and their bad-faith claim is legally viable.

II. Analysis

A. Summary Judgment Standard

Summary judgment is appropriate if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with any affidavits "show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). As the moving party, FMH bears the burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact as to at least one essential element of the Wanamakers' claim. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett , 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). The Wanamakers, as the non-moving party, must respond with sufficient evidence from which a jury could reasonably find for them. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. ,

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Bluebook (online)
364 F. Supp. 3d 839, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wanamaker-nursery-inc-v-john-deere-risk-prot-inc-tned-2019.