On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy of the District of Massachusetts denied Church Mutual Insurance Co.’s motion for summary judgment in a coverage dispute with the First Baptist Church in Newton. The church filed suit in February 2023, after its insurer denied coverage for damage to the church’s bell tower after stones fell, causing damage to the tower itself and its sanctuary. Church Mutual claimed the bell tower’s fallen stones did not constitute a “collapse” under its policy because the structure remained standing, among other things.
The court denied Church Mutual’s summary judgment motion, determining that the definition of “collapse” was ambiguous under the church’s operative policy. Murphy also said the church failed to establish that the bell tower “collapse” had not occurred and that the disputed history of structural decay within the bell tower made summary judgment inappropriate at this stage in the litigation.