William C. “Corey” Harris | Merlin Law Group, PA | September 23, 2015
As I have noted in the past, the appraisal process has become a hot topic in the property insurance world in the past few years. Colorado has become ground zero for many of these disputes. While many states have statutory or appellate precedent to define the scope and workings of the appraisal process, Colorado is one of the few that does not.
In a previous post I discussed a recent case in which a federal court in Colorado had written an extensive opinion discussing the appraisal process and the definition of the phase “amount of loss.” An important follow-up point, however, is this decision does not stand alone.
As early as 2011, Colorado courts were wrestling with whether determining the “amount of loss” includes a determination of the causation of damages. State trial courts in multiple districts found it did.
While I have never seen a state trial court opinion going the other way on this issue, it appears that many insurers decided to take their chances on the issue in the Colorado federal courts. Since the decision mentioned in my previous blog, other courts in the District of Colorado have come down the same way.