An insurer is seeking to avoid nearly $5 million in costs to replace a 55-ft-tall mechanically stabilized earth wall that failed during construction at a Texas quarry, arguing the loss does not qualify as a covered accident.

EMC Property & Casualty Co. asked a federal court Oct. 30 to rule that it does not have to cover the replacement costs for the wall built by contractor ABS Services Inc.

The dispute reflects a recurring construction-insurance question: when defective work causes property damage, whether the loss constitutes an accidental "occurrence" covered by commercial general liability insurance or a business risk the contractor must bear.

The coverage case opens a new front in a more than 15-month dispute over what caused the wall at Vulcan Materials' Cantrell Mountain Quarry near Uvalde, Texas, to begin failing during construction in 2024.

Ridgeland, Miss.-based ABS attributes the failure to excessive consolidation and deformation of limestone rock asphalt beneath the wall, while Vulcan's…