The Illinois Supreme Court handed down a big win for policyholders just in time for the holidays. In Acuity v. M/I Homes of Chicago, LLC, the court joined the mainstream of jurisdictions and reversed years-old precedent that severely limited policyholders’ ability to tap their liability coverage for construction defect and faulty workmanship claims.
In prior years, a number of appellate courts in Illinois ignored the common-sense interpretation of the industry-standard language included in many general liability policies, instead applying a “scope of work” rule holding that in order for there to be “property damage” caused by an “occurrence”—standard terms found within the coverage grant in many liability policies, necessary to trigger coverage—there must be an allegation of damage to something outside the scope of the construction project.
