My client's property is insured on commercial property form CP 00 10 04 02 with special causes of loss form CP 10 30 04 02 attached. There was a large snowfall, and snow accumulated on several insured buildings.

After the storm, accumulated snow fell from one rooftop to another, damaging a condenser on the lower rooftop. Snow that had accumulated from the same storm also slid from a different rooftop, damaging another building. The insurance carrier says the damage was caused by two separate occurrences and that two separate deductibles should be applied. Since the snow accumulated from the same storm, were there one or two occurrences?

Illinois Subscriber

These are two separate occurrences. Since there were two separate and distinct snow slides, separated in time and place from one another, they should be individually adjusted. Remember that the sliding of the snow caused the damage, not the original snowstorm.

The situation might have been different if, for example, snow slid simultaneously off two sides of the same roof or if snow slid from one roof to another, creating a chain reaction in which several pieces of property were damaged. This isn't the case here, however, as there was a definite break in both time and place of the occurrences.

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