There have been two recent federal district court decisions in the widespread class action litigation involving the application of depreciation to the labor cost component of replacement cost value on property insurance claims. (For background on this issue, see my February 21, 2017 blog post.) The “labor depreciation” litigation has been trending in favor of the insurers’ position, although these two decisions demonstrate that courts continue to reach conflicting results.

In Basham v. United Servs. Auto. Ass’n, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118729 (D. Colo. July 28, 2017), a Colorado federal court recently granted a motion for judgment on the pleadings in favor of the insurer. The court explained that “[c]overed property, such as a roof, is often the product of both materials and labor. Accordingly, repair and replacement costs comprise the cost of materials (e.g., shingles and nails), and the cost of labor (e.g., roofing contractors). Both the cost of materials and the cost of labor are therefore subject to a depreciation deduction.” The court further reasoned that actual cash value coverage “is designed to avoid placing the insured in a better position than he or she was in before the” damage occurred, and that “[w]henever property is the indivisible product of materials (stuff) and labor (work), its physical components and the assembly of those pieces will decay over time.” The court rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that depreciation should be applied only to the cost of the materials.

In Arnold v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122051 (S.D. Ala. Aug. 3, 2017), an Alabama federal district court denied the insurer’s motion to dismiss. The court wrote that “[t]he defendant certainly has not attempted to show that Alabama law requires insureds, before forming an understanding of what undefined policy terms mean, to discover and ponder the myriad and largely hidden commercial and societal considerations that underlie the insurance industry and its oversight by the three branches of state government. “ The court further explained that “[t]he defendant has identified no well-developed Alabama case law demonstrating that ACV encompasses depreciation for labor and [an Alabama Supreme Court decision] reflects that the common understanding of ACV does not encompass depreciation at all.” The decision in Arnold appears to conflict with the decision of another Alabama federal district court in Ware v. Metropolitan Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., 220 F. Supp. 3d 1288 (M.D. Ala. 2016), which granted an insurer’s motion to dismiss in a “labor depreciation” class action.

In another recent development on this issue, on August 4, 2017, the Mississippi Insurance Department issued a bulletin stating as follows: “There is no statutory law in Mississippi prohibiting the practice of labor depreciation in the adjustment of property loss claims. If such a practice is used, the insurer should clearly provide for the depreciation of labor in the insurance policy. Likewise, if material and/or labor depreciation is applied, the insurer should clearly set out any such depreciation on the claim estimate furnished by the insurer.” Miss. Ins. Dep’t Bulletin 2017-8.

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Photo of Wystan Ackerman Wystan Ackerman

I am a partner at the law firm of Robinson+Cole in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.  My contact information is on the contact page of my blog.  I really enjoy receiving questions, comments, suggestions and even criticism from readers.  So please e-mail me if you…

I am a partner at the law firm of Robinson+Cole in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.  My contact information is on the contact page of my blog.  I really enjoy receiving questions, comments, suggestions and even criticism from readers.  So please e-mail me if you have something to say.  For those looking for my detailed law firm bio, click here.  If you want a more light-hearted and hopefully more interesting summary, read on:

People often ask about my unusual first name, Wystan.  It’s pronounced WISS-ten.  It’s not Winston.  There is no “n” in the middle.  It comes from my father’s favorite poet, W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden.  I’ve grown to like the fact that because my name is unusual people tend to remember it better, even if they don’t pronounce it right (and there is no need for anyone to use my last name because I’m always the only Wystan).

I grew up in Deep River, Connecticut, a small town on the west side of the Connecticut River in the south central part of the state.  I’ve always had strong interests in history, politics and baseball.  My heroes growing up were Abraham Lincoln and Wade Boggs (at that time the third baseman for the Boston Red Sox).  I think it was my early fascination with Lincoln that drove me to practice law.  I went to high school at The Williams School in New London, Connecticut, where I edited the school newspaper, played baseball, and was primarily responsible for the installation of a flag pole near the school entrance (it seemed like every other school had one but until my class raised the money and bought one at my urging, Williams had no flag pole).  As a high school senior, my interest in history and politics led me to score high enough on a test of those subjects to be chosen as one of Connecticut’s two delegates to the U.S. Senate Youth Program, which further solidified my interest in law and government.  One of my mentors at Williams was of the view that there were far too many lawyers and I should find something more useful to do, but if I really had to be a lawyer there was always room for one more.  I eventually decided to be that “one more.”  I went on to Bowdoin College, where I wrote for the Bowdoin Orient and majored in government, but took a lot of math classes because I found college math interesting and challenging.  I then went to Columbia Law School, where I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the minions who spent their time fastidiously cite-checking and Blue booking hundred-plus-page articles in the Columbia Law Review.  I also interned in the chambers of then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor when she was a relatively new judge on the Second Circuit, my only connection to someone who now has one-ninth of the last word on what constitutes the law of our land.  I graduated from Columbia in 2001, then worked at Skadden Arps in Boston before returning to Connecticut and joining Robinson+Cole, one of the largest Connecticut-based law firms.  At the end of 2008, I was elected a partner at Robinson+Cole.

I’ve worked on class actions since the start of my career.  Being in the insurance capital of Hartford, we have a national insurance litigation practice and most of the class actions I’ve defended have been brought against insurance companies. I’ve also handled some involving products liability, managed care, health care, utilities, financial services, higher education and environmental issues.

My insurance class action practice usually takes me outside of Connecticut.  I’ve had the pleasure of working on cases in various federal and state courts and collaborating with great lawyers across the country.  While class actions are an increasingly large part of my practice, I don’t do exclusively class action work.  The rest of my practice involves litigating insurance coverage cases, often at the appellate level.  That also frequently takes me outside of Connecticut.  A highlight of my career thus far was working on Standard Fire Ins. Co. v. Knowles, the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Class Action Fairness Act case.  I was Counsel of Record for Standard Fire on the cert petition, and had the pleasure of working with Ted Boutrous on the merits briefing and oral argument.

I started this blog because writing is one of my favorite things to do and I enjoy following developments in class action law, writing about them and engaging in discussion with others who have an in interest in this area.  It’s a welcome break from day-to-day practice, keeps me current, broadens my network and results in some new business.

When I’m not at work, you might find me running lines or watching a musical with my teenage daughter who hopes to be a Broadway star (or taking her to voice or dance lessons) or reading a good book.

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