Strauss v. Chubb Indem. Ins. Co., No. 13-2580 (7th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseThe Strauss home in Mequon was built in 1994. They insured the home with policies issued by Chubb from October 1994 to October 2005. Water infiltrated and damaged the home through a defect present since the completion of construction; the damage went undiscovered until 2010, after those policies expired. Chubb denied coverage, contending that because the damage manifested in 2010 and the “manifestation” trigger applies to first-party property insurance, it could not be responsible for the damage. Chubb also asserted that the claim was submitted after expiration of the applicable statute of limitations. The district court concluded that the “continuous” trigger theory applied due to the language of the Policy such that coverage existed for the entire loss and that the claims were not time-barred. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. In Wisconsin, under the continuous trigger theory, a progressive loss “occurs continuously from exposure until manifestation.” Here, the loss was ongoing and occurred with each rainfall and the policy itself states that “[c]ontinuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general conditions unless excluded is considered to be one occurrence.” The loss, for purposes of the statute of limitations, occurred all the way up until the damage manifested in October 2010.
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