Summary
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied EBooks Web Com, LLC’s second motion to compel appraisal concerning 1,856,612 books damaged in a fire. The court held that the parties’ dispute over whether replacement books were of “like kind and quality” involved policy interpretation, rather than an issue suitable for appraisal at that stage.
Holdings
- Appraisal is limited to determining the dollar value of a loss through factual ascertainment and may not resolve disputes concerning the meaning or interpretation of an insurance policy.
- Plaintiff failed to show that appraisal of the identified inventory was suitable at this juncture, because the parties' valuation dispute was driven by an unresolved policy-interpretation question.
Questions Presented
- Whether the disputed valuation of Plaintiff's damaged book inventory was suitable for appraisal.
- Whether appraisal could determine the value of the inventory when the parties' disagreement depended on interpreting the policy's replacement-cost and actual-cash-value provisions.
- Whether Plaintiff could obtain a limited, piecemeal appraisal while other appraisal-related issues remained premature.
Disposition
other
Cases Cited (4)
- McGourty v. Pa. Millers Mut. Ins. Co., 704 A.2d 663, 664 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1997) (per curiam)(followed)
- Williamson v. Chubb Indem. Ins. Co., No. 11-cv-6476, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31648, at *9 (E.D. Pa. Mar. 8, 2012)(followed)
- Milligan v. CCC Info. Servs., 920 F.3d 146, 152–53 (2d Cir. 2019)(persuasive)
- Indian Chef, Inc. v. Fire & Cas. Ins. Co., No. 02 Civ. 3401, 2003 WL 329054, at *3 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 13, 2003)(persuasive)
Cited In (0)
No citing cases on record yet.
Court Document
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