Owners Association of the Bella Vista Villas, Inc. v. Owners Insurance Company, 1:16-cv-01018

Plaintiff (Owners Association of the Bella Vista Villas) sued Defendant (Owners Insurance) for breach of contract and bad-faith/unreasonable delay under Colorado law after wind/hail damage to insured property.
The policy contains an appraisal clause allowing each party to select an appraiser, the appraisers to select an umpire, and a judge to select an umpire only if the appraisers cannot agree.
Parties entered an Appraisal Agreement and the case was administratively closed to permit appraisal; earlier disputes over appraiser impartiality led to a prior motion to disqualify denied by the magistrate judge.
Appraisers (one for each side) agreed on and signed a Selection of Umpire naming Nick Lovato, but Plaintiff later sought to withdraw from that agreement and asked the Court to remove/replace the umpire.
The Court denied Plaintiff’s motion to re-open and to appoint a different umpire, concluding (1) the parties’ contracts do not clearly authorize the Court to intervene at this stage and (2) the Appraisal Agreement does not provide a basis to remove an already-selected umpire.
The Court required that the case remain administratively closed and ordered that it will only be re-opened after (a) the appraisal process concludes (or is abandoned) and (b) the parties certify they participated in good-faith mediation with a commercial insurance mediator.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Court authority to intervene in appraisal process	Court may appoint/remove umpire because appraisal clause contemplates judicial selection when appraisers cannot agree	Court intervention appropriate to resolve disputes delaying appraisal	Court: Parties’ private contracts do not grant automatic court authority to police every appraisal dispute; Plaintiff identified no legal basis for relief at this stage (motion denied)
Right to withdraw from agreed-upon umpire and obtain judicial appointment	Plaintiff sought to withdraw from written Selection of Umpire and have judge appoint replacement	Selection was executed by appraisers; clause for judge selection applies only if appraisers cannot agree	Court: Appraisers had agreed in writing; Appraisal Agreement contains no procedure to remove a sitting umpire and only permits vacating an award as a potential consequence of objections — not removal now (motion denied)

Auto-Owners Ins. Co. v. Summit Park Townhome Ass'n, 100 F. Supp. 3d 1099 (D. Colo. 2015) (discussing appraisal purpose and contract construing appraisal clauses)
Heideman v. Salt Lake City, 348 F.3d 1182 (10th Cir. 2003) (economic loss generally does not constitute irreparable harm for preliminary injunction)