Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance v. Lakeside Heights Homeowners Ass'n

ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Plaintiff Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co. (“Philadelphia”) contends that the “subsidence exclusion” in the insurance policy between it and defendant Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association (“the HOA”) means that it is not obligated to defend or indemnify the HOA in an underlying state court action in which the County of Lake brought counterclaims for negligence and loss of lateral support, among other things. The crux of the dispute is over the breadth of the term “operations” in the subsidence exclusion. The evidence submitted with Philadelphia’s motion, including especially the HOA’s Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC & R’s) establishes, that the HOA’s “operations” include maintenance of its landscape, construction activities on its property, and its irrigation and drainage systems. All possible theories of liability against the HOA in the underlying state court action, including those based on negligence, arise from those operations. Accordingly, Philadelphia’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.

BACKGROUND

The HOA and owners of property within the HOA asserted claims against Lake County in the Lake…