Earlier this 12 months, I reported on a putting jury verdict towards Brotherhood Mutual Insurance coverage Firm in a dispute introduced by Inexperienced Acres Baptist Church in Brotherhood Mutual Hit With $35 Million Punitive Award on Roof Injury Declare. The jury awarded the church practically $5 million in contract damages and a staggering $35 million in punitive damages for alleged dangerous religion. It was the type of choice that made headlines within the insurance coverage business, because it advised a powerful rebuke of Brotherhood’s claims dealing with.
However trials aren’t the tip of the story. Submit-trial motions and judicial evaluate can considerably change the end result, and that’s exactly what has occurred right here.
Following the decision, Brotherhood moved for judgment as a matter of regulation. The federal trial court docket fastidiously reviewed the proof offered to the jury and concluded that Inexperienced Acres had not met its burden of proof. 1 The court docket emphasised that substitute price advantages underneath the coverage weren’t owed as a result of the church had not really repaired or changed sure properties, and that no competent proof was supplied concerning precise money worth for these objects. Within the absence of such proof, the court docket decided there was no evidentiary foundation to help both the contract damages or the punitive damages the jury awarded.
I’ve not too long ago and repeatedly famous the necessity for policyholders to current precise money worth proof in lots of jurisdictions. I recommend that property loss practitioners representing policyholders learn When Proof of Worth Sinks a Declare: Precise Money Worth Issues.
The choose subsequently put aside the decision in its entirety, coming into a “take-nothing” judgment in Brotherhood’s favor. The court docket additionally conditionally granted Brotherhood’s request for a brand new trial, ought to its ruling later be overturned on attraction.
Inexperienced Acres sought to change or amend that call, however the court docket denied the movement. 2 In its latest order, the court docket defined that the plaintiffs had not offered new proof, nor had there been any change in governing regulation. As an alternative, the arguments raised merely rehashed positions the court docket had already thought of and rejected. The underside line is that Brotherhood Mutual is now the winner of this trial.
This case is a reminder to everybody within the insurance coverage and restoration fields that whereas jury verdicts could seize consideration, they continue to be topic to authorized scrutiny. The procedural steps after trial can solely reshape the end result. Policyholder advocates should hold this in thoughts when assessing litigation technique and managing consumer expectations.
Now, the matter will in all probability be appealed. The trial court docket choose already anticipated that the matter may be returned for a brand new trial, as famous in his award. I’ll attempt to sustain with future developments of this very attention-grabbing case.
Thought For The Day
“Begin the place you’re. Use what you might have. Do what you possibly can.”
—Arthur Ashe
2 Inexperienced Acres Baptist Church v. Brotherhood Mut. Ins. Co., No. 6:23-CV-556 (E.D. Tex. July 3, 2025).
1 Inexperienced Acres Baptist Church v. Brotherhood Mut. Ins. Co., No. 6:23-CV-556 (E.D. Tex. Sept. 3, 2025).
