Universal Property and Casualty Insurance Company received a judgment in Boca Raton, FL for damages totaling $350,000. Jurors found that Universal improperly denied a claim for damages to a continuous tile flooring.
Homeowner, Elliot Sterns, discovered that his continuous tile flooring was tenting. Tenting is term used to described what happens to tile flooring when it pops upwards creating a tent-like shape. Sterns’ experts argued that the “tenting” was caused by an increase in moisture that was accredited to tree roots that penetrated the moisture barrier in the slab of the property and allowed excess moisture to penetrate and lift the tile flooring.
Universal argued that the tile flooring was damaged as a result of improper installation which is clearly excluded in the subject policy. Universal raised another defense and stated that the amount demanded by the Plaintiff, Sterns, was excessive and that the damage to the tile flooring was long-term and had occurred through an extended period of time.
Universal has expressed its intention to appeal this verdict.
Elliot Stern v. Universal Property and Casualty Insurance Company, No. 50-2020-CA
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