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Our insured has a policy with a limit of $15,000; however, the peril of theft is limited to $5,000. The insured's lab was burglarized, and $2,000 in inventory was stolen. The burglar left the door of a refrigerator open in the insured premises, which contained $9,000 worth of medicine. These medicines spoiled due to the lack of the proper temperature. The medicine was not removed or touched inside the refrigerator.

We have no coverage issue over the $2,000 of stolen goods since it is covered under the $5,000 theft limitation. We have several issues over the spoiled medicine.

The insured believe he is entitled to the full $9,000 for the spoiled medicine under the peril of vandalism.

Our questions are the following:

Do you consider the act of leaving a refrigerator door open vandalism?

Assuming that the answer to the first question is yes, since the medicine was not removed from the refrigerator, do you consider the spoiled medicine to be a direct physical loss of vandalism?

Puerto Rico Subscriber

It is our opinion that the loss would not be considered vandalism. Vandalism is generally characterized as damage done for no purpose but to destroy property, whereas the damage you describe is incidental to the burglary. The refrigerator door was merely left open by burglars looking for items to steal. There does not appear to be malicious intent to destroy property. Thus, the loss of the medicine would not be covered by the vandalism peril.

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