Assurance Company of America, a Maryland Corporation v. Wall & Associates LLC of Olympia, a Washington Corporation

Appellant Wall & Associates (“Wall”) appeals the district court’s grant of Assurance Company of America’s (“Assurance”) motion for summary judgment and the denial of Wall’s cross-motion for summary judgment. In this contract interpretation case, the district court concluded that the policy language for collapse coverage required a “sudden falling down,” which, the court found, Wall did not demonstrate. As there was no collapse and thus no coverage, the district court also deemed all of the collateral issues moot or irrelevant.

The district court erred in interpreting the term “collapse” in isolation; the collapse provision contains additional language indicating an intent to extend broader coverage. We hold, therefore, that the collapse provision here provides coverage not only for actual collapse but also for imminent collapse. In light of our decision, the case must be remanded for the district court to consider the remaining issues raised in the parties’ motions for summary judgment.

I. Background

Wall owns the Percival Plaza, which consists of two buildings built respectively in 1989 and 1990. The buildings’ structures consist of steel columns and steel beams with open-web…