Estate of Davis ex rel. Casey v. Farmers Mutual Insurance

(Filed June 28, 2000)

It is a basic fact of life that when most people buy a home, they also buy homeowner’s insurance to protect against certain types of losses. The policy usually says something to the effect that the insurance company will pay the policyholder the “actual cash value” of the loss. However, the policy usually also has a “cap” or a total value, a figure which is the maximum amount of money that the insurance company will pay on the policy.

Insurance companies are prone to mischief, particularly when it comes to paying the “actual cash value” of a loss, and this case is a…