I’ll admit that I’m not a forms expert. However, until I encountered this story at the Advocate, I had never really thought about insurance applications needing to be burdened with piles of exclusion wording:
Judge Edward D. Rubin weighed in on the “wind versus water” issue in a ruling Monday. In the ruling, Rubin found Louisiana Citizens Property Corp. must pay the full value of a homeowners policy because both the policy and the policy application did not include a water-damage exclusion.
“It means that if there is not a floodwater exception in the application, insurers have to pay the full amount of the policy if there is wind damage,” said Paul J. Cox, the attorney for Vermilion Parish homeowners Mark and Barbara Landry. The law applies in cases where the home is a total loss.
I have a hard time imagining that this ruling would stand on appeal. If it does, I’d expect insurance applications to become far more cumbersome, and I’d assume that this would be yet another disincentive against insurers wanting to write in Louisiana.