Concurrent Causation Doctrine Defeats $8 Million Insurance Action, 5th Cir. Affirms

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appellate panel has ruled that the concurrent-causation doctrine applies to all-risk policies, therefore a health system’s claim for $8 million in losses caused by a power loss falls within an exclusion for “changes in temperature or humidity.”

In a Dec. 29 opinion, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that under the doctrine, the exclusion was triggered because the covered and non-covered perils were interdependent.

Methodist Hospitals of Dallas lost $8 million in sterile medical supplies after a thunderstorm cut off power at one of Methodist’s hospitals, causing two chiller units to shut …