Mele v. All-Star Ins. Corp.

• Decision Date: 24 July 1978
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 76-2637.
• Parties: William MELE and Marie Mele v. ALL-STAR INSURANCE CORPORATION et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

453 F. Supp. 1338

William MELE and Marie Mele v. ALL-STAR INSURANCE CORPORATION et al.

Civ. A. No. 76-2637.

United States District Court, E. D. Pennsylvania.

July 24, 1978.

Thomas B. Rutter, Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiffs.

Harry P. Begier, Jr., Philadelphia, Pa., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

JOSEPH S. LORD, III, Chief Judge.

After a jury returned a verdict for defendants, plaintiffs in this action on an insurance contract have filed a post-trial motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or in the alternative for a new trial. Plaintiffs, husband and wife, seek to recover insurance benefits for fire damage to a building located at 730-732 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, which they own and which was partially destroyed by fire on July 26, 1975. Defendants resist plaintiffs' claim on the ground that the fire was of an incendiary origin and was caused to be set by William Mele. In rendering their verdict for defendants the jury accepted this assertion. In their post-trial motion plaintiffs argue that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence and that I erred in instructing the jury that plaintiff Marie Mele was barred from recovery if the jury concluded that her husband was responsible for the fire. I reject both these arguments.

I. VERDICT AGAINST THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE:

Plaintiffs contend that the verdict is against the weight of the evidence because there was insufficient evidence for the jury reasonably to conclude that William Mele was responsible for the fire. Although a trial court has much discretion in deciding whether to grant a new trial, the court must not interfere with a jury verdict on this ground unless it is quite clear that the jury has reached a seriously erroneous result which would amount to a miscarriage of justice if it were left standing. Lind v. Schenley Industries, Inc., 278 F.2d 79, 89 (3d Cir. 1960). Since the allegation of arson by the insured is an affirmative defense, the defendants had the burden to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that William Mele was responsible for the fire. Greenberg v. Aetna Insurance Co., 427 Pa. 494, 496, 235 A.2d 582, 584 (1967). Plaintiffs maintain that defendants have failed to meet this burden.

There was not extensive testimony on the issue of Mr. Mele's responsibility for the fire. The evidence from which the jury could infer plaintiffs' responsibility is circumstantial and is not disputed by plaintiffs except for Mr. Mele's denial that he set or procured others to set the fire. The damaged building was acquired by plaintiffs a few months before the fire and plaintiffs were in the process of altering the interior to accommodate a furniture business which they intended to start. The fire which damaged the building obviously was of incendiary origin. Investigation after the fire disclosed that there had been seven separate fires inside the building caused by the ignition of "set-ups" and five additional "set-ups" which did not ignite. These setups had been distributed throughout the second, third and fourth floor of the building, and it was the opinion of Lt. Robert V. Quinn of the Fire Marshal's office that this pattern of set-ups was intended to destroy the entire building.

There was substantial evidence from which a jury could have inferred that William Mele had a motive to destroy the building. Mr. Mele purchased the building for $30,000 but insured it for approximately $203,000, which was its replacement cost. Although they expended approximately $13,000 for renovations plaintiffs still would reap substantial financial benefit if the building was destroyed and they collected their insurance benefits. At the time of the fire Mr. Mele was not employed and was collecting unemployment insurance. He also was in debt in the amount of approximately $35,000. Although he had some experience in the furniture business, this earlier business venture had not been financially successful.

There was other evidence suggesting that someone familiar with the building was responsible for the fire. At the time of the fire Mr. Mele and his family were in Hawaii and therefore plaintiffs could not have set the fire themselves. To find for the defendants the jury would have to infer that Mr. Mele had procured someone else to set the fire. When the firemen arrived at the fire both the front and rear doors to the building were unlocked. Workmen who had been making alterations to the structure did have keys but they had been instructed to lock the doors whenever they left the building. Since the fire was on a Saturday afternoon when the workmen were not present, the doors should have been locked. The jury could have inferred that the arsonist had a key which he or she used to obtain access to the building. Additionally, at least one of the set-ups on the fourth floor used a five gallon container of Buten's Naphtha. A short time before the fire Mr. Mele purchased such a container for the purpose of cleaning the flooring on the fourth floor. I conclude that a jury could have inferred that the container used in the set-up was the one bought by Mele and that the arsonist knew the container was in the building.

Plaintiffs asserted during the trial that there had been labor disputes during the alteration of the building and that laborers possibly were responsible for the fire. However, Lt. Quinn testified that in his experience as an expert in arson, fires resulting from a labor dispute usually involve either the use of a Molotov cocktail or a single open fire used to burn combustibles and that the fire in plaintiffs' building was not consistent with that pattern. A jury reasonably could have rejected the plaintiffs' theory of the arson.

I know of no case law in Pennsylvania setting forth the quantum of evidence which is necessary to support an arson defense by an insurer. The standard is whether the evidence supported a reasonable and legitimate inference that the insured fraudulently burned the building or caused it to be burned. Ruttenberg v. Fire Insurance Co., 122 Pa.Super. 363, 370, 186 A. 194, 196 (1936). A reasonable inference is one not based on speculation or conjecture but rather is a logical consequence deduced from other proven facts. Commonwealth v. Whitman, 199 Pa.Super. 631, 634, 186 A.2d 632, 633 (1962). Although this inference must be reasoned from evidence presented, it need not be the only logical conclusion which a jury could reach. Smith v. Bell Telephone Co., 397 Pa. 134, 138, 153 A.2d 477, 480 (1959).

To support their argument that there is sufficient evidence of Mr. Mele's responsibility for the fire, defendants cite numerous state criminal cases reviewing the sufficiency of the...