Cardinal Building Materials, Inc. v. Amerisure Insurance Company, No. 23-1508 (8th Cir. 2024)
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The case centers on an insurance dispute between Cardinal Building Materials, Inc. and Amerisure Insurance Company following damage to Cardinal's facility by a tornado. Cardinal initially received a payout from Amerisure but later claimed additional coverage under its policy. Amerisure requested further documentation to support these additional losses, which Cardinal provided, albeit in an unorganized and delayed manner. Amerisure also requested Cardinal to provide a representative for an examination under oath, which Cardinal complied with. Subsequently, Amerisure argued that Cardinal had failed to cooperate as outlined in the insurance policy due to its delayed and disorganized submission of documents, and changes to the claim amount. The district court granted summary judgment in Amerisure's favor, holding that Cardinal had materially breached the insurance policy's cooperation clause.
However, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit disagreed with the lower court's decision. The court noted that while Cardinal's document submission and response times were not ideal, the policy did not specify a particular format or schedule for document submission. The court also pointed out that Amerisure did not provide evidence that it had requested a "signed, sworn proof of loss" from Cardinal, a requirement in the policy. As such, the court found that there were genuine disputes of material fact as to whether Cardinal's actions constituted a material breach of the cooperation clause, making summary judgment inappropriate.
The court did not address Amerisure’s alternative arguments that Cardinal failed to generate a genuine dispute of material fact regarding damages or present evidence from which a jury could rationally estimate Cardinal’s damages. The court deemed these arguments to be fact-intensive and best left to the district court to decide in the first instance. The court therefore vacated the summary judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings.
Court Description: [Gruender, Author, with Smith and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Insurance. There were genuine issues of material fact as to whether plaintiff's actions constituted a material breach of the cooperation clause in the parties' insurance contract, and the district court erred in granting the defendant's motion for summary judgment; defendant's fact-intensive alternative arguments for affirmance were not addressed by the district court and are best addressed in the first instance by the district court.
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