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Insurer sues asphalt company it says caused a $1-million Dorchester blaze in 2021
By adamg on Mon, 03/20/2023 - 11:15am
An insurance company says a contractor putting down asphalt at a residential building undergoing renovation in 2021 sparked a $1-million fire and it wants that company to pay it for the money it paid the building's owner.
In a suit filed in US District Court in Boston on Friday, Selective Insurance Company of the Southeast of Indianapolis, IN, charges that a worker at Omar Paving, Inc. of Framingham set the unoccupied multi-family building at 1063 Washington St. in Dorchester ablaze while using a blowtorch during driveway work on Dec. 3, 2021.
In its suit, the insurance company alleges that Omar didn't have a permit for "hot work," didn't have anybody watching to make sure the blowtorch didn't start a fire, didn't have a fire extinguisher on site and didn't have any "competent employees" on site to ensure they didn't set a wooden building on fire.
The insurer asked for a jury trial at which to make its case that Omar should pay it the $1,009,650.67 it paid to the Wellesley owners of the building, plus interest, plus possible damages.
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| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Complete complaint | 94.15 KB |
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Comments
Not sure “Selective Insurance”
Is best name for an insurance company.
Where's the Exhibit
showing BFD determination of cause and origin?
That'll probably come later
As an exhibit at trial.
Passing the buck(s)
Sounds like Selective is trying to get Omar's insurance company to foot the bill for this fire (assuming Omas HAS insurance.) Wouldn't it be funny if Omar was insured by Selective?
This is very common
I think they would know by now if they insured both parties.
They have an obligation to make their insured whole and Omar’s insurance company has an obligation to pay for claims he caused.
That's correct - this is
That's correct - this is almost certainly the result of failed internal negotiations between insurance companies (aka Subrogation) now resulting in a lawsuit. The property owners assign Selective the right to recover as a condition of their original claim being covered. Selective now has the option to go back to the contractor (and through them, the contractors insurance) for recovery.
That's how all insurance
That's how all insurance works. If your property is damaged in a way that possibly has a fault to it, your insurance pays you and then goes after the person at fault. If your property was damaged in a way that was nobody's fault and the insurance can't recoup its losses, they deny your claim. Super fun how it works where the insurance company always makes money.
Strange
If the cause of the fire was the asphalt company's blowtorch (seems like something easy to prove) then why is this going through court? Why did routine subrogation between the insurance companies fail?
I remember this fire as I was
I remember this fire as I was listening from the get go. IIRC the fire started in the basement so I wonder how the paving company moron is to blame?
It seems like basements and driveways
would have a good chance of being right next to each other. "Started in the basement" might mean "started in a basement window because someone was careless right outside while using a blowtorch".