An Ohio school district claims its insurer demolished a snow-damaged roof, then left the building exposed for months - turning a covered loss into a contaminated structure.
Ashtabula Area City School District sued Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company in federal court this month, alleging the insurer's handling of a weather claim caused additional damage and left a high school contaminated with bacteria.
The case centers on Lakeside High School, where the roof over a 125,000-square-foot academic wing collapsed in December 2024 under the weight of approximately 54 to 60 inches of snow. What happened next, according to the district's filing, transformed a straightforward structural failure into a protracted dispute over coverage.
Liberty Mutual directed a restoration company to begin demolishing the compromised roof on or about January 28, 2025. But the district says the insurer then directed removal of the entire roof without implementing adequate protection measures. For months, the wing remained exposed, resulting in snow and rain intrusion.
By late February or early March, the district had hired an industrial hygienist to assess moisture conditions. Testing revealed microbial and bacterial growth inside the concrete block walls. Concentrations of bacteria reached more than three million colony-forming units per swab in some samples, according to reports cited in the lawsuit.
The district's structural engineers concluded in March that the extent of repairs to second-floor masonry walls was so extensive that removing and rebuilding them entirely may be more effective from a time and cost perspective. The school asked Liberty Mutual to deem the wing a total loss requiring demolition to the slab.
The insurer declined. Instead, it issued repair estimates in April and July 2025 valuing the loss at approximately $21 million to $27 million in replacement cost. The district's own estimate, completed in September, came in at more than $56 million.
At the heart of the dispute is whether Liberty Mutual should have declared a constructive total loss. The district argues the insurer's repair estimates approached approximately 70 to 76% of the rebuild cost for the academic wing - yet Liberty Mutual could not identify a threshold it uses for such determinations, the filing states.
The district also says the insurer has failed to pay covered extra expenses despite requests in June, September, and October 2025. The policy provided $1 million in extra expense coverage, but the district claims it has received no payments.
Liberty Mutual commissioned its own environmental review, which found that 27 samples were positive for gram-negative bacteria and six samples were positive for gram-positive bacteria. However, that report concluded disinfection within the concrete block cavities was not warranted because direct exposure of the wall cavity to occupants is not intended or likely. The district disputes that conclusion.
The case raises questions about insurer obligations when they direct mitigation and repair work. The district alleges Liberty Mutual's decision to remove the roof without adequate temporary protection breached both the insurance contract and a duty of care.
The school holds a commercial property policy with Liberty Mutual covering buildings and personal property with a blanket limit of $232,851,001 across multiple locations. The high school alone had a total insured value limit of $82,235,529.
The district seeks policy benefits, damages for breach of contract and negligence, and punitive damages for alleged bad faith. Liberty Mutual has not yet responded to the allegations.
