In SECURA v. Lyme St. Croix Forest Co., LLC (2018 WI 103), the Supreme Court issued its first major decision of the 2018-19 term, ruling in a unanimous decision on a tort case involving insurance coverage for property damaged in the Germann Road Fire.

The issue before the court was whether multiple occurrences may arise from a single cause for insurance coverage purposes. In this case, SECURA argued that the fire spreading across multiple property lines was a single occurrence and thus coverage arising from the fire would be capped at the per-occurrence limit of $500,000. On the other hand, plaintiffs argued that a separate occurrence began each time the fire crossed into another property. Thus, coverage would be capped at $500,000 per property damaged, up to the policy’s $2 million aggregate limit.

The court ultimately sided with SECURA, determining that the fire was a single occurrence and coverage should be capped at the policy’s $500,000 per-occurrence limit. The court based its decision on the “cause theory” that says damages from a “single, uninterrupted cause” are a single occurrence. The court ruled the fire a single, uninterrupted cause and argued ruling otherwise would have arbitrary and unreasonable consequences.