- Posted February 26, 2015
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Insurer wins dispute over fire, pot growing
By Ed White
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) - An insurance company can recover more than $130,000 from a Michigan woman whose home burned down when her then-husband smoked marijuana oil in the basement, an appeals court said Tuesday.
Brien Matthews had a medical marijuana card and could grow pot for others. But Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance said the insurance policy was violated because it wasn't informed about the basement nursery at the Bay City home.
"Far from merely adding one houseplant ... Mathews had approximately 28 marijuana plants growing in the basement," the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. "Two rooms in the basement had been converted into growing rooms, with one housing plants in the 'vegetative state' and the other serving as the 'flower room,' and Mathews had spent upwards of $20,000 on lab equipment."
The fire in January 2012 began when Mathews was smoking oil extracted from marijuana leaves. The extraction process involved butane, which is highly flammable.
The home was owned by Kasey McDermott. Nationwide Mutual said it immediately gave her $5,000 and later paid off her $131,850 mortgage before reversing course three months after the fire.
"Nationwide's payments were not truly voluntary because it did not have all of the facts," the company said in a court filing.
The appeals court agreed with U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington, who said McDermott's home loss was not covered by the policy.
McDermott's attorneys said she should be treated as an innocent victim.
"There is no evidence that Ms. McDermott knew her husband was going to use butane to either accidentally or intentionally blow up her home," Jo Robin Davis said in a court filing.
Published: Thu, Feb 26, 2015
headlines Oakland County
- Meet the Judges
- Owner of twice-sunken Lake Michigan barge pleads guilty to felony
- Justice Dept. reaches civil settlement with victims abused by Lawrence Nassar
- Oakland County, Oakland Livingston Human Services Agency launch Oakland County Senior Chore Pilot Program
- U.S. Immigration Court judge to be keynote speaker at law school’s Law Day virtual celebration
headlines National
- New Legalese: You may have heard a deepfake, but what about ‘Twiqbal’?
- From Intake to Outcome: An in-house lawyer’s guide to matter management solutions
- 2 BigLaw firms in merger talks that could produce 1,600-lawyer firm with top 50 revenue
- Send in the paralegals
- Lawyer reprimanded after mistakenly emailing opposing counsel with plan to avoid judge’s call
- ‘I don’t play well’ judge who threatened to track down, jail misbehaving litigant gets tossed from case