Norfolk city skyline and Elizabeth River, Virginia, USA. (Photo: Shutterstock)
An appellate court in New Jersey has ruled that an insured could not assert a property damage claim after its excavator fell into a river, concluding that the river had not been damaged.
|The case
Diaco Construction, Inc., lost an excavator in the Elizabeth River in the course of constructing concrete headwalls and outlets for stormwater runoff pursuant to its contract with the city of Elizabeth, New Jersey. As the appellate court explained, a Diaco employee was operating the excavator on the riverbank when he sensed it slipping into the river. The operator turned the machine and tried to drive it across the river, but the excavator got stuck three-quarters of the way across.
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Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].
