Massachusetts Appellate Division rules in favor of insurer in 93A/176D claim because insured presented no evidence of inadequate investigation

In O'Sullivan v. Hingham Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 2009 WL 2438329 (Mass. App. Div.), the Massachusetts Appellate Division overturned a trial judge's ruling that an insurer violated Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A.

O'Sullivan owned a building with a package store in it. (For blog readers not familiar with Massachusetts vernacular, a package store is a liquor store.) The store had a walk-in beer cooler. O'Sullivan discovered in October, 2004 that the back of the cooler had fallen through the floor to the crawl space below. She sought coverage from her businessowner's policy with Hingham.

The policy covered "loss caused by direct physical loss involving collapse . . . ." According to the policy terms collapse "does not include cracking, shrinking, bulging, or expanding."

Hingham sent an adjuster to inspect the floor. He concluded that the floor had "settled," not "collapsed."

A jury returned a verdict for O'Sullivan, finding that a collapse had occurred within the coverage. The trial judge then ruled that Hingham had violated Mass. Gen. Laws chs. 93A and 176D because its adjuster had conducted only a "cursory" inspection.

On appeal the Massachusetts Appellate Division upheld the jury's finding that the cooler had collapsed. However, the Appellate Division reversed the trial judge's ruling on the 93A count:

To prevail in an action for unfair settlement practices under G.L. c. 176D, § 3(9)(d), the plaintiff must show that the defendant "refus[ed] to pay claims without conducting a reasonable investigation based upon all available information." O'Sullivan made no such showing. She presented no evidence, expert or otherwise, of what Popoli had failed to do, or what additional steps he should have taken, in other words, what a reasonable investigation would have entailed. To the contrary, evidence was presented that Popoli spend between 30 and 45 minutes inspecting the outside and inside of the store, inspecting and taking measurements of the cooler, viewing the rot and deterioration beneath the floor though gaps in the raised boards, taking a number of photographs, and collecting a history from O'Sullivan. Far from a "cursory" inspection, the trial judge noted in his findings that [the adjuster] had "much probity and experience" and merely erred in this case.