Auto-Owner'S Insurance Companyv.Hale Haven Properties, Llc
Hale Haven Properties sued its insurer and two banks over payment of a commercial-property insurance claim after a hailstorm damaged a shopping center. The insurance application named Hale Haven as mortgagee, but the issued policy omitted that designation from the property-coverage section. A payment check was later deposited into an account created under a similar company name without Hale Haven’s endorsement. In four related appeals, the Georgia Court of Appeals sorted the parties’ contract, reformation, bad-faith, conversion, and commercial-reasonableness claims. The court held that factual issues remained on whether the policy should be reformed, whether Hale Haven negligently failed to obtain and read the policy, and whether the banks acted commercially reasonably in accepting and paying the check. It held that the written policy was not breached as a matter of law, the check-enforcement claim was untimely, and the bad-faith and attorney-fee claims failed. It also remanded a bank cross-claim for a limitations determination. The consolidated judgments were affirmed in part, reversed in part, vacated in part, and remanded.
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