The Supreme Court agreed on March 6 to take up an appeal by an insurance company that refused to cover non-fire damage to a yacht after it ran aground while carrying a fire extinguishing system whose inspection had lapsed.
The case is Great Lakes Insurance SE v. Raiders Retreat Realty Co. LLC, court file 20-500.
Great Lakes Insurance SE, a German corporation, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Munich Reinsurance Company. Raiders Retreat Realty Co. LLC is based in Pennsylvania.
The case goes back to 2019 when a yacht owned by Raiders Retreat Realty Co. ran aground, experiencing several hundred thousand dollars worth of damage. Although the damage was not caused by fire, the insurer, Great Lakes, refused to cover the damage because the yacht’s fire suppression equipment had not been inspected or recertified on time. Great Lakes sought a declaration in federal district court in Philadelphia that the insurance policy was invalid and Raiders filed five counterclaims against Great Lakes, according to a SCOTUSblog summary….