8th Circuit: Coverage Not Barred, Despite Faulty Workmanship

On April 20, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling, a denial of an insurer’s motion for judgment as a matter of law, and found that a builder’s risk insurance policy’s faulty workmanship exclusion does not bar coverage for damage to roof panels following a windstorm and that the windstorm’s destructive force existed despite the existence of any faulty workmanship by the insured. The case is Joseph J. Henderson & Sons, Inc. v. Travelers Prop. Cas. Ins. Co. of Am., No. 18-3341, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 12622 (8th Cir. Apr. 20, 2020).

The City of Iowa City, Iowa (the City) hired Joseph J. Henderson & Sons, Incorporated (Henderson) to design and install a building meant to improve the City’s wastewater treatment facility. Panels on the building were damaged during a wind storm. Henderson filed a claim with insurer Travelers Property Casualty Insurance Company of America (Travelers), asserting that under the City’s builders risk policy through Travelers, the insurer was required to cover the roof damage. Travelers responded that it was not liable under the policy because the damage was caused in part by Henderson’s faulty workmanship.