Inside The Industry: ‘Exploding Corpse’ Not Covered Under Property Policy
A Florida circuit court has found that a condominium owner’s property policy did not include coverage for the “explosion” of an advanced decomposed body since it did not fall under a name peril listed in the insured’s policy. Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals recently handed down the ruling in the case of Rodrigo v. State Farm Florida (No. 4D12-3410, April 23, 2014), which had its genesis in a 2009 incident involving the death of a woman whose body was not discovered for weeks.
According to court records, the women’s body had gone unnoticed until neighbors complained to the condominium’s maintenance men about the odor coming from her residence. By that time, the build-up of internal gases in the corpse had caused her abdomen to rupture, resulting in the leakage of bodily fluids into the walls and ceiling of Rodrigo’s condominium unit.
The resulting odor eventually caused the condominium association to gut the deceased’s residence. Rodrigo, however, claimed that State Farm Florida still owed her monies to repair her unit and to compensate her for damage to her personal property and for living expenses. Rodrigo had argued the deceased woman’s ruptured corpse constituted an “explosion” and was covered under her policy.
State Farm Florida, however, denied the claim, saying a decomposed body was not a covered peril. Judge Melanie May noted that Rodrigo’s policy did not define what constituted an explosion. However, she noted, that by precedent the courts have long held that a policy must be interpreted according to its most basic definition as understood by the “man-on-the-street.”
As a result, May wrote, Rodrigo’s policy did not cover the damage caused by her neighbor’s death. “The plain meaning of the term “explosion does not include a decomposing body’s cells explosively expanding, causing leakage of bodily fluids,” opined May. “In short, although novel in her attempt to do so, the insured could not establish that the decomposing body was tantamount to an explosion.” May also denied Rodrigo’s claim on the basis that she failed to provide a sworn proof of loss as required within 60 days of filing a claim.
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