A Louisiana appellate court has significantly altered a civil judgment stemming from a failed riverbank barrier, increasing a homeowner’s total recovery to $448,431.34 while completely absolving her of any responsibility for the structural collapse. The decision, handed down by the Louisiana Court of Appeal, Third Circuit, on October 30, 2026, resolves appeals from Elizabeth D. Molbert, contractor Kenko Bulkhead & Marine Services LLC, and insurer Travelers Property Casualty Company of America.
The underlying dispute began when Molbert, who purchased her property along the west fork of the Calcasieu River in 2009 for $109,000, sought to protect her land from ongoing water erosion. In June 2016, she paid Kenko $32,500 to construct a 130-foot wooden bulkhead. However, during a flood in May 2017, the newly built structure failed catastrophically. Because the contractor had improperly anchored the wooden bulkhead directly to a primary piling supporting the residence, the barrier’s collapse caused the house itself to shift and sustain severe structural damage.
In the aftermath, Molbert received $165,000 under a flood insurance policy with Liberty Mutual after an appraisal confirmed her losses exceeded policy limits. She subsequently financed extensive repairs, spending $167,058.59 to replace the failed wooden barrier with an engineered steel bulkhead and another $266,372.75 to repair the damaged house.
Molbert filed a lawsuit in March 2018 against Kenko, its insurer Travelers, and company owners Kenneth Cooley and Glenn Beier, whom she alleged had falsely claimed they were licensed contractors. Following a September 2024 jury trial, the panel assigned 75 percent of the fault to the defendants and 25 percent to Molbert, awarding her $266,372.75 for house repairs, $167,058.59 for bulkhead and shoreline expenses, $2,500 for loss of enjoyment of life, and $7,500 for mental anguish. After factoring in her 25 percent fault share, her initial trial recovery stood at $332,573.50, and claims against Cooley and Beier individually were dismissed.
The Third Circuit appeals panel dismantled several key elements of the trial court’s verdict. Examining the insurance coverage dispute, the appellate court ruled that Travelers could not invoke a breach-of-contract exclusion to deny coverage because Kenko lacked the legally required licenses to perform the construction, rendering the agreement an absolute nullity under Louisiana law. Furthermore, the court determined that while Travelers’ policy excluded coverage for the $167,058.59 cost of replacing the defective bulkhead itself under a work-product exclusion, the severe damage to the residence was fully covered under the policy’s products-completed operations hazard provision.
The appeals court also rejected Kenko’s contention that Molbert’s $165,000 flood insurance payout should be deducted directly from her civil recovery, clarifying instead that she was entitled to pursue the full scope of her damages while remaining obligated to reimburse Liberty Mutual through the policy’s subrogation terms.
Most notably, the appellate panel overturned the jury’s decision to attribute 25 percent fault to the homeowner. Expert testimony established unequivocally that the bulkhead failed due to negligent design and construction deficiencies—specifically a lack of rock protection, inadequate soil compaction, and insufficient height—with zero fault attributed to the homeowner. Addressing the contractor’s claim that Molbert should have removed a temporary stabilization beam attached to a house piling, the court noted that as a consumer who hired marine construction professionals, she bore no responsibility for recognizing technical structural risks.
Consequently, the court removed her share of fault entirely, doubled her mental anguish compensation from $7,500 to $15,000 to account for severe financial distress that included draining retirement savings and taking secondary jobs, but eliminated the separate $2,500 award for loss of enjoyment of life due to a lack of physical injury evidence. The final adjusted judgment awards Molbert $266,372.75 for home repairs, $167,058.59 for bulkhead replacement, and $15,000 for mental anguish, alongside an order requiring Kenko and Travelers to shoulder all trial court, expert witness, and transcript costs.
