COTTON STATES MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY v. Smelcer

Beasley, Presiding Judge.

The issue is whether land which contains a permanently affixed but abandoned structure is “vacant land” for the purposes of coverage under a homeowner’s liability policy.

Smelcer owned a home that was insured under a homeowner’s policy issued by Cotton States Mutual Insurance Company. He and other family members owned a separate parcel of land approximately two-and-one-fourth to three miles from his home on which was located his maternal family’s abandoned old house and an abandoned old country store. During the term of the homeowner’s policy, vandals set fire to the…