In Nashville Communications, Inc. v. Auto-Owners Insurance Company, the Middle District of Tennessee addressed a dispute many commercial policyholders face after wind or hail losses: when an insurer concedes limited damage and an appraisal later determines the repairs require a much larger scope, is the resulting award binding? The court said yes.
The loss
Last week, we looked at Magistrate Judge York’s October 2021 opinion in Smith v. State Farm, in which State Farm was ordered to proceed with an appraisal of the loss as properly invoked by Ms. Smith. As a refresher, Ms. Smith’s home was damaged by a March 3, 2020 storm, and State Farm agreed
Over the past few posts, I’ve explored a couple of recent opinions from federal courts in the Eastern and Middle Districts of Tennessee that explored the appropriate use of appraisal in resolving disputes about the “scope” of a loss. For this next installment, we move to West Tennessee for yet another recent case on the
Earlier this week I posted about the recent Ingram v. State Farm case in which a federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee obliterated State Farm’s defense that appraisal was inappropriate for disputes about “scope.” The Ingram case was just one of several recent opinions from around the State of Tennessee concerning insurance appraisals
In 2021, courts across Tennessee issued a handful of decisions that continue to define the nuances of the Tennessee Court of Appeals’ opinion in Merrimack v. Batts that is now twenty years old. Suffice it to say the landscape is quickly changing and I’m excited to share the new developments. The next few posts will
The Occupational Safety and Health Act was signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was simultaneously created to implement, administer, and enforce its requirements. OSHA’s mission is to “assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by
Almost yearly (if not more frequently), insurance companies face the argument that the appraisal process provided by the typical insurance policy should be expanded. As a refresher, back in 2001, the Tennessee Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Merrimack Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. Batts, 59 S.W.3d 142 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2001), where
With the proliferation of appraisal demands, the ins and outs of appraisal in Tennessee will begin to take shape through the judiciary. In Artist Building Partners v. Auto-Owners Mut. Ins. Co., the Court of Appeals recently made clear that it will not disturb the binding nature of an appraisal award.
For a little history