Legal Question in Insurance Law in Iowa

We are a small HVAC company. Received a certified letter today stating that one of our customers homeowners insurance company is suing us.

We live in Iowa with very cold winters. Our customer goes to Florida and leaves house vacant. We preformed a service call on his thermostat -(just switched fan control to auto from on position-did not touch furnace. This was in April.

February of following year while they were in Florida for winter, the heat quit (25 yr old furnace-and told them 5 years ago they should replace) and the water pipes burst (they did not winterize house)

Their insurance company letter states that we are at fault since we serviced furnace. Suing for 93,000 in damages.

Can they do this and are how can we possibly be liable??

Thank You in advance for your help.


Asked on 9/03/11, 6:18 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Luedeman solo practitioner

The answer is that anyone can sue anyone for anything .Making it stick is another story. It sounds like you have a pretty good defense. And don't worry yourself about the certified letter-it is not legally binding service of process-that has to be an original notice and petition personally served on your business or one of its principals.

What you have probably received is politely termed a shakedown letter. The most efficacious way of combating this is a vigorous defense and the way you get that is to hire yourself a good attorney.

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Answered on 9/04/11, 7:17 am


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