A dementia affected person discovered trapped in a walk-in freezer. Now his landlord’s insurer needs out
What occurred: A lawsuit alleges a dementia affected person wandered into an unlocked walk-in freezer at a Florida assisted dwelling facility, turned trapped, and died. The power landlord’s insurer now says its coverage was by no means meant to cowl affected person accidents.
Who’s concerned: Kinsale Insurance coverage Firm (surplus traces insurer) and HB Rubicon LLC (facility landlord).
What’s at stake: Kinsale needs a declaration of no protection, no obligation to defend, and reimbursement of the protection prices it has already paid.
Why it issues: Landlords leasing to healthcare operators could discover their industrial legal responsibility insurance policies exclude the very accidents most definitely to happen on the premises.
The place it stands: Declaratory judgment grievance filed October 8, 2026, in federal court docket in Tampa.
A walk-in freezer with an unlocked door. A dementia affected person who wandered in and couldn’t get out. A demise that the owner’s personal insurer says falls exterior the coverage.
That’s the state of affairs on the middle of a brand new federal lawsuit filed by Kinsale Insurance coverage Firm within the US District Courtroom for the Center District of Florida. Kinsale, a surplus traces insurer – a service that covers dangers too specialised or high-exposure for the usual market – is asking the court docket to substantiate it has no obligation to defend or pay claims on behalf of the ability’s landlord, HB Rubicon LLC. It additionally needs again each greenback it has already spent on the owner’s authorized protection.
The story behind the protection battle
The underlying lawsuit, filed in Could 2026 in Pasco County circuit court docket, alleges that the resident was an “in-patient” at The Waverly Assisted Dwelling & Reminiscence Care, a facility operated by Wellness Heart of Trinity LLC. In line with that grievance, the resident suffered from dementia, confusion, and “important cognitive impairments,” and had a documented tendency to wander into areas he was not permitted to enter.
On September 26, 2025, the submitting alleges, the resident wandered unattended by means of the ability, reached an allegedly unlocked kitchen, entered a walk-in freezer, and have become trapped. He suffered extreme hypothermia. He finally died.
The underlying go well with names HB Rubicon – the corporate that owns the property and leased it to The Waverly’s operator – as a defendant. It alleges HB Rubicon knew the ability would home susceptible adults and owed them duties of care, together with preserving the premises in a fairly secure situation, stopping harmful circumstances, and warning residents of hazards. The grievance additionally alleges HB Rubicon failed to offer applicable “care… help, shelter, supervision, and medical providers.”
The exclusion Kinsale is banking on
HB Rubicon held a industrial common legal responsibility (CGL) coverage with Kinsale, efficient from February 19, 2026 to February 19, 2027. The coverage was written on a claims-made foundation, that means it covers solely claims first made and reported throughout the coverage interval, moderately than any incident that occurs to happen whereas the coverage is energetic. The schedule described the chance as “Medical buildings – Lessor’s Danger Solely” – in different phrases, the coverage was designed to cowl HB Rubicon’s publicity as a property proprietor, not the scientific operations of its tenant.
The coverage carried an endorsement titled “Exclusion – Harm to Affected person or Resident.” It excluded protection for any bodily damage or injury “arising instantly or not directly out of, associated to, or in any manner involving” any affected person or resident of the scheduled premises, or anybody receiving well being care or providers there.
Kinsale says that exclusion suits squarely. The resident was an in-patient. The accidents arose on the insured premises. The coverage, as Kinsale reads it, was by no means designed to cowl this sort of declare.
The insurer additionally factors to a second exclusion overlaying accidents that come up from the rendering of – or failure to render – well being care providers, supervision, or therapy. It cites the underlying grievance’s personal language alleging HB Rubicon failed to offer enough care and medical providers. And a separate endorsement goes additional: the place the coverage supplies no protection, it says, there isn’t a obligation to defend.
The invoice for strolling away
Kinsale isn’t just looking for a declaration that it owes nothing going ahead. It needs HB Rubicon to reimburse the protection prices Kinsale has already paid.
Right here is why: when the underlying lawsuit landed, Kinsale agreed to fund HB Rubicon’s protection, but it surely did so beneath what is known as a reservation of rights – primarily a written discover that claims “we pays your attorneys for now, but when it seems the coverage doesn’t cowl this, we would like the cash again.” HB Rubicon accepted these phrases, in line with the grievance. Kinsale has been absolutely funding the protection since.
The grievance cites Florida federal court docket precedent supporting an insurer’s proper to recoup these prices the place it defended beneath a full reservation of rights and protection is finally discovered to not exist.
One element the submitting itself flags: the coverage lists the ability handle as being in New Port Richey, Florida, whereas the underlying grievance and lease determine the identical handle in Trinity. Kinsale’s personal submitting notes each discuss with the identical premises.
The case places a pointy query to claims professionals and underwriters writing CGL insurance policies for landlords of healthcare-adjacent properties: if the coverage excludes all affected person and resident accidents, and the premises is an assisted dwelling facility, what precisely is left to cowl?
Not one of the allegations within the underlying lawsuit have been examined in court docket, and no decide has dominated on the deserves of Kinsale’s protection place.
