In Elder v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., No. 1:19-cv-05077-SDG, 2021 WL 4048789, at *7 (N.D. Ga. August 2, 2021), a federal judge in Georgia resolved a homeowner's carrier's motion for summary judgment in favor of the carrier because the policyholder failed to perform a clear condition precedent to coverage in that case:
The parties agree the damage to the roof necessitated a full replacement. Based on its repair estimate, State Farm paid Elder $66,512.70 in actual cash value for such replacement. To receive additional replacement cost value payments, the Policy required Elder to “complete the actual repair or replacement of the damaged part of the property within two years after the date of loss.” It is undisputed that Elder has not done so. Instead, he paid a fraction of the actual cash value to McGuire for various repairs and kept the remainder of the money for himself. Accordingly, Elder has failed to satisfy an unambiguous condition precedent to recover replacement cost value under the Policy. Given these undisputed facts, no reasonable juror could find that State Farm committed a breach or that Elder is entitled to further payment.
In sum, the evidence in that case showed no genuine issue that the carrier paid the policyholder the actual cash value to replace a damaged roof that required a complete replacement. That is why the carrier gave the money which the carrier acknowledged to be due to the policyholder.
The evidence in that case also showed that the policyholder used the money for some repairs and kept the rest, in short. On this record, the policyholder did not fulfill the policy's condition precedent of "complet[ing] the actual repair or replacement of the damaged part of the property within two years after the date of loss." The carrier did not breach the policy contract; the policyholder failed to satisfy a condition precedent on this record.
The Court also entered summary judgment for the carrier on the policyholder's bad-faith insurance claim under a Georgia statute providing a bad-faith "penalty and attorney fees" for an allegedly delayed payment. Elder v. State Farm, 2021 WL 4048789, at *7 n.49. The statute might have applied to the policy at bar, but the facts of this case certainly did not.
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