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Winding Hills Condominium Association6/16/2000
NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION
Argued May 23, 2000
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Passaic County.
Plaintiff Winding Hills Condominium Association, Inc., brought this declaratory action against its successive first-party property damage insurers seeking recovery under the policies for the losses it sustained as a result of structural damage to the foundations of two of the six multi-unit buildings of the condominium complex caused by defects in the on-site, subsurface drainage system. It appeals from a partial summary judgment dismissing the complaint, on limitations grounds, as to those of the insurers whose respective policy periods predated the policy term during which plaintiff discovered the problem and the loss. Plaintiff, having settled with the insurer on the risk when it discovered the loss, then appealed the summary judgment in favor of the other insurers. All parties agree that the dispositive issue is whether the manifest trigger or the continuous trigger determines the insurers' liability. We affirm, concluding that the manifest trigger applies where only first-party property damage coverage is involved.
The relevant facts are essentially undisputed. Plaintiff, as a condominium association, is required by statute to maintain "insurance against loss by fire or other casualties normally covered under broad- form fire and extended coverage insurance policies as written in this State, covering all common elements and all structural portions of the condominium property...." N.J.S.A. 46:8B-14(d). In compliance with this obligation, plaintiff obtained first-party insurance from these carriers for these periods: defendant Hanover Insurance Company for January 1986 to January 1987; defendant American Reliance Insurance Company for January 1987 to January 1988; defendant St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company for January 1988 to January 1989; defendant State Farm Fire and Casualty Company for January 1989 to January 1990; defendant National Union Fire Insurance Company for January 1990 to May 1990; and defendant North American Specialty Insurance Company for May 1990 to May 1992. The policies of both St. Paul and National Union required suit on the policy to be brought against it by the insured within two years following the occurrence of the loss. The policies of the other four required suit to be brought within one year following occurrence of the loss.
It is also undisputed that in November 1989 plaintiff retained Trinity Dynamics Group, Inc. (Trinity), scientific and engineering consultants, for the purpose of evaluating its capital reserve funding and that during the course of that undertaking Trinity discovered structural deficiencies in two of the buildings, which it reported to plaintiff. Trinity was then retained by plaintiff in June 1990 to determine the extent and cause of the deficiencies. The extensive Trinity report was completed and delivered to plaintiff in January 1991. Basically, the report explained that deficiencies in the on-site drainage system had led to structural failures of the foundation footings of the two buildings. It also theorized that the compromise of the foundation footings could also be due to "improper backfill at the time of construction, subsurface soil erosion, or underground springs." In September 1991 plaintiff retained Becht Engineering Company, Inc. to remediate the foundation problem at an alleged cost in excess of $1,300,000. Becht also performed additional engineering studies, reporting to plaintiff in June 1993 of other "structural distress" caused primarily by water infiltration.
With respect to the involvement of the
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