Dive Brief:

• A trend in recent court rulings seems to be helping contractors as judges rule that construction defects can be deemed to be "accidents" and insurance companies must cover damages from lawsuits based on them.
• Insurers have long argued that defects are not accidental, but courts have begun to see differently when there is no evidence that anyone intentionally did the job wrong.
• The issue boils down to four questions: Was the defect, in fact, an accident (not intentional)? Was there damage from it? Is the defect in an area specifically excluded from insurance coverage? Is there an exception to the exclusion in the case at hand?

Dive Insight:

The courts have not been unanimous in telling insurers they have to pay up, but it appears that more and more jurists are seeing it that way. In Utah, a federal court ruled that a defect is not an accident legally, but state supreme courts in Connecticut, North Dakota, and Georgia said it is.