Owners Insurance Company, a Michigan Corporation, Petitioner v. Dakota Station Ii Condominium Association, Inc., A…

Summary

The court held that the insurance policy's requirement that each party select an impartial appraiser requires the appraiser to be unbiased, disinterested, and free from personal interest, including a prohibition on advocating for either party. It also held that the contingent-cap fee agreement did not establish partiality as a matter of law because the cap was not believed to apply, was not invoked, and bore no apparent relationship to the appraiser's estimates. The judgment was affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for factual findings under the proper impartiality standard. Justice Samour, joined by Chief Justice Coats, concurred in part and dissented in part, contending that the policy governed selection of appraisers rather than their conduct and permitted advocacy.