Water losses
State Farm asked for the plumber before it paid the kitchen.
On June 6, 2020, Levon Nargizyan noticed warm tiles in his kitchen. A plumber found a hot water pipe spraying in the crawl space, cut out the broken piece, and stopped the leak. State Farm denied the claim. On May 14, 2026 the California Court of Appeal said a jury could find the release was sudden. The court did not award the claim. The plumber was not a defendant. Mainline places contractor coverage from 779 3rd Avenue, Chula Vista. Call 619-420-8600. This page does not show a premium.
The first person on the loss was the plumber.
Nargizyan looked in the crawl space and saw water. He called a plumber. The plumber found the water spraying up from a hot water pipe, soaking the insulation and the floor above it. He removed the broken piece and replaced it. The spray stopped.
On June 10 Nargizyan told State Farm a hot water pipe had burst under the kitchen. The representative said the company needed to speak to the plumber who repaired the pipe before it could say whether the loss was covered.
Source: Nargizyan v. State Farm General Insurance Co., Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Seven, No. B342340. Opinion filed April 15, 2026. Certified for publication May 14, 2026. Checked October 13, 2026.
The denial was about time, not about how wet the kitchen was.
The policy covered accidental direct physical loss. It excluded loss caused by continuous or repeated seepage or leakage of water from a plumbing system, and the exclusion said that result did not turn on whether the event happened suddenly or gradually.
State Farm said the water came from a pinhole made by a screw or a nail, and that the leak had developed over time until the tiles felt warm and the pipe was spraying. Its engineer tested the pipe and still could not say when the leak started, how long it had existed, or the rate at which water had been leaving the pipe.
Nargizyan's side pointed at a first-time warm floor, a spray with steam, and no mold. The trial court ended the case on paper for State Farm. The Court of Appeal reversed that ending. A reasonable jury could find the leak was a sudden release of water, so the seepage exclusion was not proved as a matter of law. The appeal did not decide that State Farm has to pay. It sent that question back.
Write the call the day you make it.
The words that mattered were burst, spray, and how long. A plumber who guesses a start date is writing the carrier's file. A plumber who writes what he saw is writing his own.
The useful note is short. Where the water was going. Whether it was spraying or weeping. What piece came out. That the start time is unknown, unless the plumber actually knows it. Photographs of the piece that came out belong with that note.
This case was the homeowner against his own insurer. A different file is the insurer suing the plumber after it pays. That one is here. The old plastic pipe that fails years later is here. The liability policy that answers a suit over the work is on the liability page.