PA – Insured Is Left All Wet Under Water Damage Exclusion

An insured sought insurance coverage for water damage in his basement insisting that some damage was caused by rainwater which fell first and, that only after the rain, the basement was flooded by groundwater causing additional damage. In Pisano v. Nationwide, a federal court in Pennsylvania upheld a Water Damage exclusion contained in a commercial property policy that excluded property damage due to ground water “regardless of any other cause or event that contributes concurrently or in any sequence to the loss.” The court dismissed the insured’s claims because the facts were clear that at least some of the damage was caused by groundwater which barred coverage under the exclusion.

See Pisano v. Nationwide at http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/09d1290p.pdf

Thank you to Mendel Simon for the contribution.

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