News

October 4, 2011

Fifth Circuit victory

After a federal district court dismissed a construction company's multi-million-dollar Hurricane Katrina insurance claim on summary judgment, trial counsel asked Flanagan Partners to assist with an appeal. Before the United States Fifth Circuit, as in the district court, the insurer urged that the construction company's claim was barred by the flood exclusion or the anti-concurrent causation clause of the policy. But Thomas Flanagan, Harold Flanagan, Stephen Pesce, and Andy Dupre successfully argued that the insured had put forth evidence showing that its losses were the result of non-excluded causes: the wind and rain of Hurricane Katrina that preceded the arrival of flood waters. The Fifth Circuit reversed the district court in part, reinstating the vast majority of the construction company's claim. C.R. Pittman Construction Company, Inc., et al. v. National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, 10-30950, 2011 WL 4509554 (5th Cir. 2011).