You Only Get What You Pay For

Published: Nov. 21, 2023, 1:56 p.m.

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, a large barn with an adjacent milk house, several sheds or smaller \\nbarns, and a small country church.\\n\\nThe underlying case arises from a fire on Scafella\'s real property. The \\ninsurance claims Scafella made following that fire loss did not provide \\nthe result he desired and litigation followed.\\n\\nTHE POLICY\\n\\nThe property was insured under a homeowner\'s policy of insurance issued \\nby Erie, identified as the "ErieSecure Home Insurance Policy" \\n("policy"). The policy contained a standard business pursuits exclusion,\\n which excluded loss to property \\u201c1. used in whole or in part for \\n"business" purposes \\u2026; or 2. used to store "business" property.\\u201d\\n\\nIt was undisputed that Mr. Scafella\'s then fiance (Ms. Lisa Smith), \\nobtained two insurance quotes from Erie for the property, one including \\nan incidental farming endorsement and one without the endorsement. \\nUltimately, Mr. Scafella chose the insurance quote that did not include \\nthe incidental farming endorsement, a less costly option. \\n\\nDespite indicating to the contrary in his application for insurance, a \\nbusiness, Olivia\'s, LLC ("Olivia\'s"), was a retail store selling meat, \\ncheese, and sandwiches.\\n\\nThere is no question that the February 2, 2019, fire caused significant \\nstructural damage to the large barn and resulted in the loss of numerous\\n items of Mr. Scafella\'s personal property.\\n\\nTHE CLAIMS\\n\\nShortly after the fire loss, Mr. Scafella filed an insurance claim with \\nErie for that loss. Ms. Smith who, during a recorded statement taken by \\nMr. Geho, described Olivia\'s as being "in a different part of the [barn]\\n building," but "in the barn itself."\\n\\nErie denied the portion of the fire loss claim for the structure of the \\nlarge barn, under the business pursuits exclusion of the Other \\nStructures provision of the policy, as Mr. Scafella was operating a \\nbusiness (Olivia\'s) out of the structure.\\n\\nThe circuit court found that the "milk house and the barn are one \\nstructure" and the court concluded that the evidence on the record did \\nnot support Mr. Scafella\'s claims.\\n\\nDISCUSSION\\n\\nThe Court of Appeals concluded that Mr. Scafella failed to meet his \\nburden to establish waiver, the court of appeals found no error in the \\ncircuit court\'s award of summary judgment to Erie and Mr. Geho.\\n\\nOther Structures Provision\\n\\nThe Court of Appeals concluded that the large barn area where the fire \\noccurred and the milk house (where Mr. Scafella operated Olivia\'s) are \\nthe same structure. In fact, when providing a recorded statement to Erie\\n after the fire loss, Ms. Smith identified the barn and the milk house \\nas being part of one building.\\n\\nClaw-Back Provision\\n\\nHere, Mr. Scafella represented that the property within the large barn \\nwas his personal property to collect $67,640.80 under the personal \\nproperty coverage in his Erie policy, possibly to avoid the $2,500.00 \\nlimit to "business" personal property under the SPECIAL LIMITS - \\nPersonal Property Coverage section of policy.\\n\\nThe Court of Appeals concluded that to permit Mr. Scafella to change his\\n classification of the property at issue to recover under corresponding \\nportions of the policy is impermissible and would permit him a windfall \\nand coverage for which he did not pay. Finding no error the trial \\ncourt\'s decision was affirmed.\\n\\nZALMA OPINION\\n\\nWhen a person is given a choice of available coverages and chooses the \\none less expensive he or she is gambling that the loss will fit within \\nthe lesser coverages, and misrepresents the facts at the site of loss to\\n obtain the less expensive coverage the insured is committing fraud. \\nAfter the loss Scafella attempted to change the policy he purchased into\\n the policy he refused to pay for, with multiple legal machinations that\\n the courts of West Virginia refused to honor. The moral: always tell \\nthe truth to your prospective insurer and never buy a policy that does \\nnot provide coverage for the risks the property faces.

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