April 27th, 2017

​State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. Flowers

Docket: 16-60310
Opinion Date: April 26, 2017
Judge: Stephen Andrew Higginson
Areas of Law: Insurance Law

State Farm filed suit seeking a declaratory judgment that a homeowner's insurance policy issued by State Farm to Cedric Flowers was void ab initio as a result of material misrepresentations made by him in his application for the policy. The district court granted State Farm's motion for summary judgment. In this case, the district court noted that, in both his answer to State Farm's complaint and his response to State Farm's request for admission, Cedric Flowers admitted to telling the agent who took his insurance application that he was the owner of the property and to stating as much in his application. Because there was no actual controversy over whether Cedric Flowers made a material misstatement on his insurance application, the court affirmed the judgment.