Plaintiff Margie Thomas filed a lawsuit against Allstate New Jersey Insurance Company (hereinafter “Allstate”) arising out of a denied homeowner’s insurance claim. Allstate was granted summary judgment by the trial court and Thomas appealed.
“In 1984, plaintiff and Westley Graves commenced cohabitating in a house Graves purchased earlier that year. He obtained a homeowner’s insurance policy from defendant at that time, which was renewed annually over the next thirty-one years. It is not disputed that, during this period, the policy defined an insured as the named insured and any resident of the household who was related to the named insured. Throughout this entire period the only named insured was Westley Graves. Plaintiff does not contend she was a relative of Graves.”
“In 1987, Graves executed an assignment in which he conveyed to plaintiff a sixty-five percent interest in the house, although only Graves’s name continued to appear on the deed. In 2003, plaintiff and Graves terminated their relationship, and Graves moved out of the house. Plaintiff continued to live in the house and paid the mortgage, property taxes, and the annual premiums on the homeowner’s insurance policy. She was aware her name was not on the policy, but she did not contact defendant to request she be added as an insured under the policy or obtain a policy that provided homeowner’s insurance coverage to her.”
Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the house and most of its content in 2015. Graves submitted a homeowner’s insurance claim for the real property and was approved for $135,775. Graves then assigned the insurance proceeds to the Plaintiff for a nominal sum. Allstate, however, rejected the Plaintiff’s claim for destroyed personal property because she was not the insured under the policy. Plaintiff’s ensuing lawsuit was dismissed for the same reason and also because she filed her insurance claim outside the 1-year deadline.
Plaintiff asserted that the policy should be reformed to acknowledge
her as an insured. “Plaintiff maintains reformation is in order because
she made a mistake by assuming she was covered under the policy. She
further asserts defendant’s acceptance of the premium payments from her
over the years constituted inequitable conduct, because defendant got
the benefit of her payments without checking whether she was an insured
under the policy.”
New Jersey Supreme Court rejected the argument.
Noting that the Plaintiff received a renewal policy each year and knew
that her name was not on the policy, court reiterated “that reformation
on the basis of mistake will not be granted when ‘the mistake is the
result of the complaining party’s own negligence.’” The Court then held
that the question of timely claim need not be addressed because the
Plaintiff was not an insured under the policy. The case is Thomas v. Allstate New Jersey Insurance Company, A-2419-17T3.
About J. Elliott Stolz, Esq.
ared Elliott
Stolz is an attorney in New Jersey, focusing on insurance law and
litigation. He is the managing partner of Stolz and Associates. Jared
Stolz received his undergraduate education at Drew University in
Madison, New Jersey and graduated with honors from Seton Hall University
School of Law. Jared E. Stolz has been the managing partner of Stolz
and Associates since 2004, specializing in providing individual and
customized attention to insurance carriers needs on substantial coverage
disputes. Mr. Stolz has nearly two decades of experience in the
insurance industry and strives to offer the clients a combination of
tried and true legal analysis along with tactic, brought to it by
today’s technology, with a focused eye on expenses. He has represented
prominent clients in numerous noteworthy cases with published opinions
and has published and given seminar on insurance law topics.
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Jared E. Stolz, Attorney in New Jersey 