Opinion ID: 51585
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Flood, surface water, waves, tidal

Text: water, overflow of a body of water, or spray from any of these, whether or not driven by wind; The policy also contains the following “Hurricane Deductible Endorsement”: We will pay only that part of the total of the loss for all Property Coverages that exceeds the hurricane deductible stated on the Coverage Summary. The hurricane deductible shown on the Coverage Summary applies to all covered property for direct physical loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by a hurricane as defined below. Such deductible applies regardless of any other cause or event contributing concurrently or in any sequence to the loss. No other deductible provision in the policy applies to direct physical loss caused by a hurricane. In no event will the deductible applied for a hurricane loss be less than the property deductible shown on the Coverage Summary. Hurricane means wind, wind gust, hail, rain, tornado, cyclone or hurricane which results in direct physical loss or damage to property by a storm system that has been declared to be a hurricane by the National Weather Service. . . . .... All other provisions of this policy apply. The Humphreys action was removed to federal court. On June 12, 2006, Humphreys and Encompass Indemnity settled and agreed to dismiss with prejudice (pursuant to Rule 41) the wind-damage portion of Humphreys’s claims as well as the entirety of her bad-faith claim. The parties’ stipulation of partial 17 No. 07-30119 dismissal specified that the remaining claim was the “claim to seek recovery for flood/rising water damage” under the policy. The next day, Humphreys moved for partial summary judgment, asking the district court to rule that her policy provided coverage for flood damage to her residence pursuant to the policy’s hurricane-deductible endorsement. At oral argument before the district court, according to the district court’s order, Humphreys’s counsel also adopted the Chehardy, Vanderbrook, and Xavier plaintiffs’ arguments concerning the ambiguity of the flood exclusion, and the district court therefore construed Humphreys’s partial-summary-judgment motion as also extending to the issue of the flood exclusion’s applicability.9 The district court granted in part and denied in part Humpreys’s motion. The court concluded that the hurricane-deductible endorsement did not itself create or extend coverage and denied Humphreys’s partial-summary-judgment motion on this issue. But for the same reasons that the court construed most of the policies in the Vanderbrook, Xavier, and Chehardy actions as providing coverage, the court concluded that Humphreys’s alleged damage was covered under her policy and granted partial summary judgment in her favor on this issue.