Insurer Objects to Magistrate's Findings, Says Damage Caused by Runaway Boats is Excluded From Coverage

NEW YORK — An insurer has opposed a federal magistrate judge’s recommendation that policyholders be awarded summary judgment in a dispute over whether damage caused by two runaway boats during Superstorm Sandy falls within the policy’s “Surface Water Exclusion.”

In a Feb. 16 opposition filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the insurer argued that Magistrate Judge Gary R. Brown ignored two recent New York rulings in which the courts held that where objects are “propelled” into a building by wind driven water, the resulting damage is excluded by a typical flood exclusion because …