In Hughes v. Allstate Indemnity Co. (2019AP1234), the Court of Appeals District IV held that homeowner’s insurance policy exclusions precluded coverage for water damage to the plaintiff’s basement.

Hughes’s basement sustained water damage after someone turned on a spigot and left it running without Hughes’s knowledge or permission. Hughes filed this lawsuit seeking coverage from his Allstate insurance policy for the damage.

The Allstate policy covered damage to Hughes’s home, with some exceptions. The policy specifically excluded coverage for water damage. The policy also provided no coverage for instances where there are two or more causes of loss to the property and the predominant cause of the loss is excluded.

The court agreed with Allstate that these two provisions precluded coverage for the water damage to Hughes’s home. The court found that the water itself, not the act of turning on the spigot, was the predominant cause of the loss. Because water damage was excluded from the policy, the policy did not provide coverage in this case.