Mississippi Court Reverses Katrina Wind vs. Water Case

The Mississippi Supreme Court has overturned an insurer’s victory in a wind vs. water case involving a home hit by 6.3 feet of storm surge during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The National Flood Insurance Program paid Michael Robichaux and his family policy limits for the loss of their home and its contents — $136,500 for the home and $70,400 for contents.

At issue was whether Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co. owed the Robichauxes any money for wind damage. Robichaux’s attorneys said he’s owed at least $60,000. Nationwide says no, but for different reasons than it cited in a 2009 water vs. wind case.

Though Nationwide paid neighbors on each side for wind losses, it claimed the Robichauxes had none. Alternately, Nationwide argued the NFIP already fully reimbursed the Robichauxes and they can’t collect twice for the same loss.

The Mississippi high court has ruled that the trial judge erred in dismissing the case. Justice Jim Kitchens wrote that there were “genuine issues of material fact” over whether structures and personal property covered under the Robichaux policy “were damaged by wind prior to the destructive force of the storm surge.”

In the 2009 case, the Supreme Court decided Mississippi law requires insurers to prove that tidal surge, rather than wind, caused a loss to deny coverage. Wind and water are separate forces, the court reasoned, that cause different types of damage. Wind damage is covered under an all-perils policy.

In the Robichaux case, Nationwide said storm surge caused all the damage.

“Given that this case is to be remanded on the issue of whether wind was a proximate cause of damage prior to the destruction of the other structures and personal property by storm surge … Nationwide has the burden of proving that the other structures under Coverage B were damaged by an excluded peril.

“The converse is true with regard to the Robichauxes’ burden of proving that personal property under Coverage C suffered accidental, direct, physical loss as a result of one of the enumerated perils, namely windstorm,” Kitchens said.

Topics Mississippi