After discovering ongoing hidden damage behind the exterior walls and roof of its building, a Madison Park Condominium Association contacted Harper│Hayes to assist it in making a claim to its property insurers. The insurers denied coverage and the firm filed a lawsuit on the Association’s behalf.
On a motion for summary judgment, a King County Superior Court judge ruled that one insurance policy issued in the late 1990s covered all ongoing damage caused by “above-ground water” or “exposure to elements of the weather” if some of that damage occurred during the policy period. The Court also held that because the policy didn’t have an “inverse efficient proximate cause” provision, “the Policy covers damage resulting from the combination of excluded and non-excluded perils.” Similar orders were granted against other insurers, and the Association’s eventually recovered mid-seven figures in a settlement on the eve of trial.
