Michael F. Schmidt Prevails In First Party Insurance Coverage Dispute Among Carriers Over A Fire On Property Owned By Gm Grand

Northland Insurance Co. as Subrogee of GM Grand v Century Surety Company and Adel Abbas Hashim, Wayne County Circuit Court, claim for $148,000 in property damage from a fire to property owned by GM Grand and insured by Northland Insurance Co. Northland filed suit as subrogee of GM Grand against Century Surety Company and Adel Abbas Hashim seeking coverage for the loss under the policy of insurance issued by Century Surety Company to the tenant Hashim and seeking recovery against Hashim for the damages pursuant to the lease. We were successful in obtaining summary disposition from Judge Wendy Baxter for both Century Surety and Hashim, on the basis that the Century Surety policy did not provide first party property coverage to GM Grand and that although GM Grand was an additional insured on the Century Surety policy, the policy did not provide any property coverage for GM Grand’s loss and also did not provide any liability coverage to Adel Abbas Hashim for the claims made by Northland. The court further ruled that Adel Abbas Hashim had no liability to GM Grand under the lease, because although the lease stated that the tenant assumed the entire risk of loss for damage to all or any part of the property, a separate lease provision required the landlord to insure the property. There had been a case evaluation award in favor of the plaintiff in the amount of $25,000.