The California Senate has approved legislation that seeks to clarify homeowners’ insurance coverage following deadly mudslides near Santa Barbara.

Insurance policies generally cover damage caused by fires but not by mudslides. That creates confusion in cases like the mudslides in Montecito, which were triggered by a wildfire.

In such cases where multiple factors combine to cause damage, courts have ruled that insurers must pay if the policy covers the “efficient proximate cause,” the most important cause, of the damage.

Most insurers have agreed to cover damage in Montecito, but Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson thinks enshrining the existing legal doctrine in law would help future mudslide victims avoid prolonged fights with insurers.

“It is important that the insurance industry know very clearly, without equivocation, their responsibility to their policyholders that they must cover these costs,” said Jackson, a Democrat from Santa Barbara.

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