FountainCourt Homeowners' Association v. American Family Mutual Insurance Company

HOA construction-defect litigation flowing through to the subcontractor's commercial general liability insurer via garnishment. The HOA obtained a $485,877.84 negligence judgment against subcontractor Sideco (whose siding and window-installation work caused water-intrusion damage), then sought garnishment against Sideco's insurer AFM. The Oregon Supreme Court (Baldwin, J.) affirmed the trial court's garnishment judgment and held: (1) coverage is triggered when continuous property damage occurs at any point during the policy period, even if the precise amount of damage attributable to that period cannot be quantified — the insured does not bear the burden of proving per-period damage allocation; (2) the underlying jury's damages award was for "physical injury to tangible property" matching the policy definition of "property damage"; (3) coverage disputes in a garnishment proceeding are resolved by the trial court as questions of law without a jury, but the insurer cannot retry the liability or damages already established in the underlying judgment. Reversed only the attorney-fee award.