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A Christian theme park known for its impressive 510-foot replica of Noah’s Ark is suing its insurers – ironically, over water damage.
Crosswater Canyon, the owner of multimillion-dollar theme park Ark Encounter, is looking to recover $1 million worth of damages, on top of applicable legal fees and costs. The company is also suing its insurers for an unspecified amount of punitive damages.
Washington Post reported that the lawsuit was filed last week in district court in Kentucky. Allied World Assurance and three other insurance carriers were named as defendants.
In 2017, the town of Williamstown, KY – where the park is located – saw 40-50 inches of rainfall throughout the year. The volume of precipitation caused a slope next to an access road near the east side of the theme park’s ark replica to fail in May that year. The lawsuit explained that the slope was later subject to a “significant landslide,” which destroyed a barrier along the road.
“The Ark itself does not sit next to the damaged areas,” Crosswater Canyon explained in a recent statement. “The Ark was built on bedrock and was never in jeopardy.”
Ark Encounter then hired engineers, who suggested that they replace the barrier with a retaining wall and add drilled concrete shafts to prevent further damage. The contractors also made a number of other improvements – repaved and repaired roads, grading, and drainage improvements. In total, the repairs and improvements all cost about $1 million.
The insurers, however, denied claims for the repair and improvement work, reasoning that the policy had exclusions for correcting design deficiencies or faulty workmanship.
While the insurers later paid what the lawsuit called a “very small portion”, the park said its insurers have “breached their contractual obligations, acted in bad faith, and violated Kentucky law by failing to provide further coverage.”
