The British Columbia Court of Appeal recently confirmed in Acciona Infrastructure Canada Inc. v. Allianz Global Risks US Insurance Co.1 that a Workmanship/Design Exclusion does not exclude the costs to remedy damage caused by defective workmanship. The lower court decision was previously reported on in Covered. Acciona is the first case in Canada to consider the LEG 2/96, "Defects Exclusion" clause used in Course of Construction ("COC") policies in Canada. While the outcome of this appeal decision is definitely pro-insured, the lasting impact of this decision will depend on whether the court's reasoning is restricted to the unique facts of this case or applied more broadly to resulting damage claims generally.
Background
The Respondent was the contractor for an eight-story reinforced concrete structure being built as a major addition to the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, B.C. The contractor claimed over $14 million in damages from insurers under a COC policy for the costs to repair concrete slab floors that had "over-deflected" and did not meet the level surface functionality requirements for wheeled hospital equipment.
The policy's insuring agreement provided coverage for "all risks of direct physical loss of or damage to the property insured" subject to exclusions in the policy. The insurer denied coverage on the basis of a workmanship/design exclusion clause which read as follows:
all costs rendered necessary by defects of material workmanship, design, plan, or specification, and should damage occur to any portion of the Insured Property containing any of the said defects the cost of replacement or rectification which is hereby excluded is that cost which would have been incurred if replacement or rectification of the Insured Property had been put in hand immediately prior to the said damage. For the purpose of this policy and not merely this exclusion it is understood and agreed that any portion of the Insured Property shall not be regarded as damaged solely by virtue of the existence of any defect of material workmanship, design, plan or specification. Lower Court Decision
The trial judge accepted the expert evidence of the contractor that the over-deflection, cracking of the slabs and bending of the rebar was not caused by defective design. Rather it occurred as a result of improper formwork and shoring procedures, which did not account for the thin slab design. The damage was therefore covered by the insuring agreement. The...
