Insurance Law
La. High Court Rules for Insurers: Levee Breach Clearly a ‘Flood’
Posted Apr 8, 2008, 12:48 pm CDT
By Molly McDonough
The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled today that the levee breach damage caused by Hurricane Katrina was clearly a "flood" and is excluded from insurance coverage.
The decision reverses lower courts which had ruled that the definition of "flood" was ambiguous in all-risk homeowners policies, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
The court ruled emphatically that the definition of flood doesn't depend on location, culture, or national origin for that matter. "[T]he entire English speaking world recognizes that a flood is the overflow of a body of water causing a large amount of water to cover an area that is usually dry land," the opinion (pdf) stated.
Further, "Contrary to the court of appeal's reasoning, this definition (of flood) does not change or depend on whether the event is a natural disaster or a man-made one -- in either case, a large amount of water covers an area that is usually dry," the majority opined.
The Times-Picayune reports that Justice Chet Traylor of Winnsboro, who wrote for the majority, went even further, saying the flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was not actually caused by man, only aided by human errors.
"The flood was caused by Hurricane Katrina, not by man," Traylor wrote. "The levees did not cause the flood, they, whether through faulty design, faulty construction, or some other reason, failed to prevent the flood."
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