Our insured, a commercial bank, has a foreclosure that is a large vacant building, which housed a painting company. During a three-week period, a group of people broke into the building and stripped out all of the electrical system. The damage estimate is close to $900,000. The carrier said that since the perpetrators entered the building numerous times over that period, more than one deductible applies. The policy does not define "occurrence." I believe that since it is a series of similar events by the same group of perpetrators, that it is a single occurrence deserving one deductible. Is that an appropriate argument?

Kansas Subscriber

The insured must be able to show evidence that it was the same group of perpetrators who committed the acts, and they must have been committed within a reasonable amount of time in order for this to be considered a single occurrence. For example, if the insured noticed things disappearing over a three-week period as opposed to two or three nights in a row, it would be more difficult to consider that as one occurrence.