United States Fifth Circuit

In an action brought by plaintiffs, who lost their home during Hurricane Katrina, to collect benefits under their homeowner's insurance policy, grant of judgment as a matter of law and an award of punitive damages for plaintiffs is reversed in part and vacated in part where the district court erred as a matter of law in entering JMOL as: 1) it erred in finding that the destruction of plaintiffs' personal property by the hurricane was sufficient to establish a separate assertion that the property was destroyed by "windstorm," a "named peril" under their coverage; 2) a rational jury could conclude that the home and personal property were destroyed by water, an excluded peril; and 3) a decision to submit the punitive damages question to the jury required reversal, and the award is vacated.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/07/2008
• Published 04/08/2008

Judges

• EDITH BROWN CLEMENT, Circuit Judge:, Before JONES, Chief Judge, and WIENER and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• William Clement Walker, Jr. (argued), Oxford, MS, Jack Lucian Denton, Denton, Jenner & Walker, Biloxi, MS, for Plaintiffs-Appellees., John Anderson Banahan, Bryan, Nelson, Schroeder, Castigliola & Banahan, Pascagoula, MS, Douglas Webber Dunham, Sheila L. Birnbaum, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, New York City, Susan Marie Popik, Chapman, Popik & White, San Francisco, CA, Clarke Benbow Holland (argued), LHB PacificLaw Partners, Emeryville, CA, for Defendant-Appellant.