What happened: A Florida appeals court affirmed a $240,000 verdict, ruling vibrations from demolition were not earth movement.
Who’s involved: Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Company and a Miami policyholder.
What’s at stake: $240,000 in damages plus interest.
Why it matters: Earth movement exclusions do not reach vibration damage where no ground displacement occurred.
Where it stands: Affirmed on appeal; not final until disposition of any rehearing motion.
A neighboring demolition shook walls, shifted picture frames, and caused cracks in floors, walls, and ceilings, but the insurer dismissed it as settling.
A Florida appeals court has affirmed a $240,000 jury verdict against Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Company, ruling that vibrations from heavy construction equipment did not trigger the policy’s earth movement and settlement exclusion.
The dispute dates back to March 2014, when the policyholder reported cracking damage to her Miami home. She said it started during demolition next door - she was inside, felt the shaking, and watched her picture frames shift on the walls.
Homeowners Choice sent Bracken Engineering to inspect. The firm concluded the damage came from material shrinkage or settlement. The insurer denied the claim, pointing to the earth movement and settlement exclusion - the policy carve-out that removes coverage for damage caused by shifting, sinking, or settling ground.
The policyholder’s expert, Alfredo Brizuela, saw it differently. He found that vibrations from heavy machinery had “travelled through the lime rock subsoil strata and induced vibrations into the property foundation structure.” The key point: “The vibrations damaged the property without displacement of the earth.”
No ground movement. Just energy waves passing through rock and into the house.
The trial court refused to throw the case out on the exclusion. When it reached a jury in November 2022, the verdict came back for the policyholder.
On appeal, the Third District Court of Appeal held the line. Judge Bokor pointed to earlier cases where blasting had physically shifted a house - squarely within the exclusion. But vibrations alone, without the ground actually moving, did not qualify. The court cited its recent ruling in Izquierdo v. Universal Insurance Co. of North America: where the dispute is whether shock waves alone caused the damage, “the subject earth movement exclusion will not apply.”
The court also found Homeowners Choice had waived its right to argue the policyholder failed to meet post-claim obligations - once the insurer denied coverage outright, calling its own letter a “declination of coverage,” it could not then fault the policyholder’s paperwork.
The $240,000 verdict, plus interest, stands.
For property claims teams, the case cements a clear Florida rule: if the damage comes from vibration without ground displacement, earth movement exclusions do not apply.
The ruling is not final until the disposition of any timely filed motion for rehearing.
