Helene, Milton claims spawn an array of litigation

The massive amounts of debris produced by back-to-back hurricanes required a strategic staging and removal process. (Credit: Ubuntwo/Wikipedia Commons)

As the southeastern United States has begun to rebuild after hurricanes Helene and Milton tore through parts of the country, many different forms of litigation are expected to follow.Experts in insurance, construction and real estate weighed in on what to expect.“There are a wide variety of potential claims with respect to a hurricane, including what caused the loss,” said Steven Brodie, a Miami-based shareholder with Carlton Fields whose area of focus is insurance. “Was it wind? Was it water? As for business interruption claims, was the damage caused by a pre-existing defect, or was it caused by the event? … To what extent does (damaged property) have to be replaced? Does it have to be brought up to code?”For those who sustained damage from both Helene and Milton, they and their insurance companies will have to determine whether “each event caused separate damage or not,” Brodie said.For example, if a property owner has a coverage limit of $20 million per event, that owner might not necessarily receive $20 million for each event, he said. The owner would have to prove that the second hurricane caused separate and distinct damage from the first.“I think that’s going to be one of the big challenges here: both the insured and insurers trying to determine whether there was distinct damage caused by each event and whether there would be more than one policy limit available. … The issue is, how do you best show that?” he said.Jason Quintero, a shareholder with Carlton Fields whose area of focus is construction, said he anticipates that he and fellow attorneys who work in his practice area will primarily see litigation relating to construction projects that have been interrupted and damaged as a result of the hurricanes.“Most of those claims are covered by its public risk insurance policy, but there is going to be some litigation that comes out of that,” Quintero said.Upcoming construction litigation will likely include disputes over payment, the nature of the insurance coverage, and the terms for contracts’ force majeure provisions, Quintero said.“Depending on how those force majeure provisions are written, a contractor may be exposed to claims because the contract doesn’t address it properly, and the owner could press the contractor to meet unreasonable deadlines because the work has been pushed out,” Quintero said. “Or, the owner could have issues in terms of obligation to pay, based on what the contract says.”People who own or manage condos should be prepared for potential litigation as well.After hurricanes, condominium associations can suffer significant damage to common areas. Litigation can arise when the associations retain contractors to repair common areas, but the repairs aren’t done correctly or payment disputes arise.“Probably eight to 10 months out is when we’ll start seeing the first beginnings of that litigation start to come in,” Quintero said.The original version of this story was published on Daily Business Review.See also:

• The most livable places in the United States in 2024
• U.S. sees highest number of tornadoes in 13 years
• Shifting weather patterns challenge future flood prediction