Warranty Statute Does Not Apply to an Exclusion

Red the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/business-use-exclusion-reasonable-common-homeowners-zalma-esq-cfe and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 3900 posts. Steven Kutchera bought a homeowners policy from defendant State Farm Fire and Casualty Company. In 2020, Kutchera submitted a claim to State Farm under that policy, alleging that his garage collapsed because of the weight of ice and snow on the roof. State Farm denied the claim on the ground that Kutchera had been using the garage for business purposes, so it was excluded from coverage. In Steven Kutchera v. State Farm Fire And Casualty Company, No. 20-cv-930-jdp, United States District Court, W.D. Wisconsin (September 15, 2021) the USDC was asked to make an exclusion a warranty or an exclusion. ZALMA OPINION Kutchera knew exactly what he was doing. He had purchased business insurance to cover the garage and paid a hefty premium for the coverage. He cancelled that policy and told State Farm that he had stopped doing business at the garage. In so doing he misrepresented the use of the garage to State Farm who discovered the lies during its investigation. Because there was clearly no coverage Kutchera tried to use a statute to make coverage that didn’t exist. He should have told the truth and kept the business coverage.