This is the denial letter itself. Not a summary, not a quotation of one: the document the insurance company sent, filed as an exhibit to a lawsuit and therefore public. It survives because the policyholders sued and their lawyer attached it to the complaint.
Sent on October 13, 2022 from Nationwide E&S/Specialty, Scottsdale Insurance Company, P.O. Box 182452, Columbus, OH 43218-2452. Every quote and figure below is read off that document. The street address, policy number and claim number are removed; the party names are the public case caption.
| Who wrote it | Scottsdale Insurance Company, a Nationwide surplus lines company |
|---|---|
| Who signed it | Steve Thompson, Special Claims Representative II. A field adjuster did the inspection. |
| Who received it | 4205 Pine Island LLC, the named plaintiff in the public case caption |
| Who was on the policyholder side | The owner retained counsel and sued in the Middle District of Florida |
| What it is | A total denial reached in two sentences. The water damage is excluded by the causes-of-loss form and the wind damage is excluded by an endorsement, which between them cover both ways a hurricane damages a building. |
| What the carrier calls the form | CP 00 10 Building and Personal Property Coverage Form with CP 10 30 Causes of Loss Special Form |
| Where | 4205 Pine Island Road NW, Matlacha, Lee County, Florida. The declarations describe frame construction, one storey, built 1946. |
| When the loss happened | September 28, 2022, the day Hurricane Ian came ashore at Cayo Costa, a few miles from this address |
| When the letter was sent | October 13, 2022, fifteen days after landfall |
| Why, in the letter’s own reasoning | The field adjuster found damage from both surge and wind. Surge and flood are excluded under CP 10 30 paragraph B.1.g. Wind and hail are excluded by a separate endorsement the letter says the policy carries, and the forms schedule for this policy number lists CP 10 54 Windstorm Or Hail Exclusion. |
| Amount paid | None. Both identified causes of damage are excluded |
|---|---|
| Days from landfall to denial | 15 |
| Building | Frame construction, one storey, year built 1946 |
| Policy type | Commercial property, surplus lines |
| Exclusions relied on | Water at CP 10 30 B.1.g, and a windstorm or hail exclusion endorsement |
This section is our reading of the document above, not the letter's words.
What it does for the insurance company
Nothing here requires an argument about how much damage there was. A hurricane damages a building two ways, by water and by wind, and this policy excludes both. The adjuster's findings are not contested in the letter; they are used. Confirming extensive surge damage and wind damage to both buildings is what closes the claim, because each finding lands on an exclusion. The anti-concurrent-causation wording removes the usual escape route, which is arguing that a covered peril contributed.
What it means for the homeowner
A 1946 frame building a few miles from where Ian made landfall, insured under a commercial policy that excluded wind by endorsement. Whatever this policy was bought for, it was not hurricanes. The letter arrived fifteen days after landfall, which tells you the conclusion did not require much investigation once the endorsement was in hand.
- 1 Read your endorsement schedule before a storm, not after. A windstorm or hail exclusion is a single line on a forms list and it removes the main reason most coastal property is insured.
- 2 Surplus lines policies are not standard homeowners or commercial forms and are not subject to the same Florida rate and form review. Check what has been endorsed out.
- 3 Where wind is excluded but water is not, or the reverse, the entire claim turns on allocating damage between the two. Get an expert to do that allocation in writing before the carrier's version becomes the only one.
- 4 Anti-concurrent-causation wording means showing that a covered peril contributed is not enough. You have to separate the damage each peril caused.
- 5 If wind is excluded, a separate windstorm policy or a Citizens wind-only policy is the gap-filler. Ask your agent what covers wind on this building and get the answer in writing.
The declarations for this same policy number carry the Florida surplus lines warning in capitals, THIS POLICY CONTAINS A SEPARATE DEDUCTIBLE FOR HURRICANE OR WIND LOSSES, WHICH MAY RESULT IN HIGH OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES TO YOU, while the forms schedule for that policy lists CP 10 54 Windstorm Or Hail Exclusion. A hurricane deductible sits on the face of a policy that excludes wind. The exhibit packet contains two policy numbers, and both of these appear under the one the letter names.
4205 Pine Island LLC v. Scottsdale Insurance Company, No. 2:23-cv-01235-JLB-NPM (M.D. Fla.), Doc. 4, Exhibit C at 208 to 215 of 215. Read the filed document ↗
A complaint states one side's allegations and the case is pending; nothing here has been decided by a court. Not legal advice; consult an attorney about your specific claim.
The fourth letter in the archive held as a document, and the only one where both halves of a hurricane are excluded by the same policy. Found by reading every page of the filed exhibit rather than the first few.
4205 Pine Island LLC v. Scottsdale Insurance Company, No. 2:23-cv-01235-JLB-NPM (M.D. Fla.), Doc. 4, Exhibit C at 208 to 215 of 215. · public record ↗
Quotes are verbatim from the cited public record. Case status and statute summaries drafted August 2026; verify against the current docket and statute. Not legal advice; consult an attorney about your specific claim.
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