Recent Development by Amy Allums
Fire broke out in the laundry room of the Prytania Park Hotel in New Orleans and then spread to the office and seven guest rooms. The hotel suffered smoke, fire, and water damage to, among other things, furniture that was fastened to the guest room walls by screws or bolts in typical hotel fashion. General Star Indemnity Company (General Star) insured the hotel under a policy providing that loss or damage to the “furniture and fixtures” of the building would be covered at actual cash value, but loss of the building itself and its “[p]ermanently installed: [f]ixtures” would be covered at full replacement value. Not surprisingly, the hotel claimed the furniture as “[p]ermanently installed: [f]ixtures” and General Star disagreed.
The hotel filed suit against General Star for breach of contract and declaratory judgment. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana determined that the items of furniture were “[p]ermanently installed: [f]ixtures.” The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's decision, remanded for a new trial, and held in the alternative that the pieces of furniture were not “fixtures” under the policy, and even if they were fixtures, they were not “permanently installed” under article 466 of the Louisiana Civil Code. Prytania Park Hotel, Ltd. v. General Star Indem. Co., 179 F.3d 169, 172 (5th Cir. 1999).
About the Author
Amy Allums.
Citation
74 Tul. L. Rev. 1543 (2000)