Opinion ID: 2500072
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: All-Risk Insurance Coverage

Text: ¶ 22 Property insurance policies generally fall into two categories: named-peril and all-risk. In insurance parlance, `perils... refers to fortuitous, active, physical forces such as lightning, wind, and explosion, which bring about the loss.' Garvey v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 48 Cal.3d 395, 406, 257 Cal.Rptr. 292, 770 P.2d 704 (1989) (quoting Michael E. Bragg, Concurrent Causation and the Art of Policy Drafting: New Perils for Property Insurers, 20 Forum 385, 386-87 (1984-1985)). ¶ 23 `Named perils' or `specific perils' policies provide coverage only for the specific risks enumerated in the policy and exclude all other risks. Steven Plitt, Daniel Maldonado & Joshua D. Rogers, Introductory Concepts of the Risk; Public Policy Insurability, and Causation, in 7 COUCH ON INSURANCE 3D § 101:7, at 101-17 (2006). All-risk policies, on the other hand, provide coverage for all risks unless the specific risk is excluded. Id.; see also Findlay v. United Pac. Ins. Co., 129 Wash.2d 368, 378, 917 P.2d 116 (1996) (noting that in an all-risk policy, any peril that is not specifically excluded in the policy is an insured peril); Villella v. Pub. Emp. Mut. Ins. Co., 106 Wash.2d 806, 816, 725 P.2d 957 (1986) (noting that [i]n the case of all risk homeowners insurance, the peril insured against would be any peril that is not specifically excluded); McDonald v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 119 Wash.2d 724, 731 n. 5, 837 P.2d 1000 (1992) (describing all-risk insurance as `a promise to pay upon the fortuitous and extraneous happening of loss or damage ... from any cause whatsoever, ... except when occasioned by the wilful or fraudulent act or acts of the insured' (alterations in original) (quoting 2 WARREN FREEDMAN, RICHARDS ON THE LAW OF INSURANCE § 212 (5th ed.1952))). ¶ 24 All-risk policies generally allocate risk to the insurer, while specific peril policies place more risk on the insured. Gust K. Newberg Constr. Co. v. E.H. Crump & Co., 818 F.2d 1363, 1364 (7th Cir.1987) ([U]nder an `all risk' policy, the insurer bears the risk that a catastrophe not mentioned in the policy will occur; in a `specified peril' policy, the insured bears that risk.); Frank Coluccio Constr. Co. v. King County, 136 Wash.App. 751, 767, 150 P.3d 1147 (2007) (noting that the purpose of all-risk builder's insurance is to shift the risk of loss away from the contractor and the owner and to place it upon an insurer). ¶ 25 In both types of property insurance, coverage is commonly triggeredor excludedwhen a specified peril causes a loss. See Garvey, 48 Cal.3d at 406, 257 Cal.Rptr. 292, 770 P.2d 704. That is, a property insurance policy might provide that it does not insure or cover loss caused directly or indirectly by an enumerated peril. E.g., Wright v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Am., 124 Wash.App. 263, 273, 109 P.3d 1 (2004).