Western Fire Insurance v. First Presbyterian Church

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that an accumulation of gasoline around a church constituted a “loss of use” when the building “became so infiltrated and saturated” with gasoline that it became “uninhabitable”
• holding that the insured suffered a direct physical loss where gasoline accumulated in the soil under and around the insured’s building and gasoline vapors rendered the building uninhabitable
• holding that the insured suffered a direct physical loss where gasoline accumulated in the soil under and around the insured’s building and gasoline vapors rendered the building uninhabitable
• concluding plaintiff suffered direct physical loss to insured building when gasoline infiltrated soil surrounding basement, contaminating foundation and rooms and rendering use of building dangerous
• holding that the policyholder suffered “direct physical loss” when “the accumulation of gasoline around and under the [building caused] the premises to become so infiltrated and saturated as to be uninhabitable, making further use of the building highly dangerous”
• holding coverage for direct physical loss triggered under “loss of use” when authorities ordered a building be closed because gasoline fumes inside the structure made the use of the building unsafe

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).