It was a dark and stormy night. The rain dripped from my fedora, as I sat at my lonely desk, looking out over the skyline (you would think that I could afford a place with a ceiling). I could see flashes of lightning illuminating the city and all its dark secrets. I did not know then that one of those secrets would invade my quietude and make me consider the signs all around. Particularly, I would think about the sign that was not there anymore, the disappeared sign.

See, it all started at the restaurant. The restaurant, call it Anthony's Fish Place to protect the innocent, had to make a change. This restaurant, well, it had a sign attached to its front proclaiming it Anthony's Fish Place. Because of a certain scandal that everybody knows about, involving a young beautiful woman and a carp, the name had to be changed to Anthony's Steak Place. The sign, that damned sign, had to be changed. Not to mention the menu.

A sign company was engaged. The sign was in three great big parts: a great big Anthony's, a great big Fish, and a great big Place.

On the Big Day, the sign company employees took down the great big Fish, detaching it from the building and leaving it laying, just laying there, on the ground. While putting up the new, great big Steak, person or persons unknown made off with the great big Fish. That's when we knew that there would be trouble aplenty.

The cops spent the next several weeks trying to find that great big Fish. They didn't. Even the feds came up empty. So, Mr. X and Mr. Y, co-owners of the newly renamed Anthony's Steak Place, turned to their insurer for help. Big help.

They did not get it. The claim for the stolen sign was denied — denied! — because it had not been attached to the building at the time of loss. The instruments involved were the ISO commercial property coverage form with the special cause of loss form attached.

What's the real picture here?

My initial gut response is that the insurance company is onto something in its denial of coverage for the theft loss of a sign that had been detached from a building for repair or replacement. The logic goes like this:

Signs, other than signs attached to buildings, specifically are included in the list of Property Not Covered in the Insurance Services Office standard commercial property policy. However, like the swallows returning to Capistrano, Coverage Extension e. Outdoor property gives back a limited amount of coverage (1,000 clams) for signs “other than attached to buildings,” but only for the specified perils of fire, lightning, explosion, riot or civil commotion, or aircraft. Theft is not on the list, and the temper of Mr. X can hardly be called an explosion, albeit explosive.

The simple answer, the kind we're looking for, and the correct answer, the kind we need, seems to be that this was a sign unattached to a building (therefore it is not covered property under the basic policy) and that the policy's coverage extension for outdoor property does not apply, because its loss was not by one of the specified perils.

Now that it's all over, I am comfortable with this. However, some of the members of the gang think that the argument could be made that, once detached and out of the game, the Big Fish became business personal property of the insured and would be covered if in the open or in a vehicle within 100 feet of the described premises as “all other personal property owned by you and used in your business.” I am not sure about the validity of this argument, but it can be argued.

Night falls. So does the FC&S detective. Buttoning up my overcoat and turning my collar to the chill, I cover the waterfront.

Bruce Hillman is editorial director, Professional Publishing Division, of the National Underwriter Co.

The FC&S Claim Queue is prepared and written by the editorial staff of The Fire, Casualty and Surety (FC&S) Bulletins, the most widely used encyclopedic reference service devoted to insurance policy interpretation and coverage topics. FC&S is published by The National Underwriter Company.

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The Case of the Disappearing Sign

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