Vera v. Liberty Mutual Fire Ins. Co.

Citations

• 335 Conn. 110

Syllabus

The plaintiffs, whose home was insured by the defendant insurance com- pany, sought to recover damages from the defendant in an action brought in state court and subsequently removed to the United District Court for the District of Connecticut. The plaintiffs alleged, inter alia, that the defendant had breached certain provisions of the applicable homeown- ers insurance policy by declining coverage for cracking in their concrete basement walls. A structural engineer whom the plaintiffs retained to evaluate the walls concluded that they were not in imminent danger of falling down and required no structural supports but would continue to deteriorate further due to being constructed with defective concrete. The plaintiffs claimed that they were covered under the policy because the deterioration of the concrete in their basement walls had substan- tially impaired their structural integrity such that they were in a state of collapse, as that term had been defined in Beach v. Middlesex Mutual Assurance Co. (205 Conn. 246), in which this court concluded that that the term ''collapse'' in a homeowners insurance policy, when otherwise undefined, is sufficiently ambiguous to include coverage for any substan- tial impairment of the structural integrity of an insured's home. The defendant filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming, inter alia, that the plaintiffs could not establish a substantial impairment of the structural integrity of their basement walls without proof that the walls were in imminent danger of falling down or caving in. Prior to deciding the defendant's motion, the District Court certified a question of law to this court concerning what constitutes substantial impairment of structural integrity for purposes of applying the collapse provisions in the homeowners insurance policy at issue. Held that the issue raised in this case was substantially identical to that considered in the compan- ion case of Karas v. Liberty Ins. Corp. (335 Conn. 62), and the court