Sipes v. Allstate Indemnity Co.

949 F. Supp. 2d 1079, 2013 WL 2467704, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80426
CourtDistrict Court, D. Colorado
DecidedJune 7, 2013
DocketCivil Action No. 11-cv-02369-PAB-KMT
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 949 F. Supp. 2d 1079 (Sipes v. Allstate Indemnity Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sipes v. Allstate Indemnity Co., 949 F. Supp. 2d 1079, 2013 WL 2467704, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80426 (D. Colo. 2013).

Opinion

ORDER

PHILIP A. BRIMMER, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the Motion for Partial Summary Judgment filed by defendant Allstate Indemnity Company (“Allstate”) [Docket No. 42], The Court has jurisdiction over this case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332.

I. BACKGROUND1

This case involves a dispute between plaintiff Larry Sipes and Allstate over [1081]*1081whether Allstate properly denied coverage for a fire that damaged plaintiffs rental property. The fire occurred on March 30, 2010 at Mr. Sipes’ rental house located at 413 30 1/4 Rd., Grand Junction, Mesa County, CO (the “Rental Property”). Allstate insured the Rental Property.2 As a result of the fire, Mr. Sipes filed a claim with Allstate for insurance benefits.

Allstate assigned Mr. Sipes’ claim to senior claims analyst Stephanie Littleton, manager of Allstate’s special investigations unit. Docket No. 42-2 at 5 (Littleton Dep. 12:20-25). To investigate Mr. Sipes’ claim, Allstate obtained a fire origin and cause report prepared by the Clifton Fire Department, Docket No. 42-7, retained Phoenix Investigations, a private fire inspection company, to prepare a fire origin and cause report, Docket No. 42-8, and retained Rita L. Booker, an attorney who specializes in insurance defense litigation, Docket No. 42-4 at 3-4 (Booker Dep. 7:17-8:6), to prepare a coverage analysis opinion letter. Docket No. 42-3.

The Clifton Fire Department’s report on the origin and cause of the fire was prepared by Chris Rowland, a firefighter with the Clifton Fire Department. Mr. Rowland began his investigation after the Clifton Fire Department extinguished the fire on March 30, 2010. He issued a Preliminary Origin and Cause Investigation Report [Docket No. 42-7] on May 5, 2010.3 Mr. Rowland’s investigation consisted of an examination of the exterior and interior of the rental property, as well as interviews with Mr. Sipes, firefighters, previous tenants of the Rental Property, and neighbors of the Rental Property. Docket No. 42-7 at 1. In the report’s conclusions, Mr. Rowland opined that the fire had two areas of origin (1) the north wall of the kitchen and (2) the utility room west of the kitchen. Id. at 7. In addition, Mr. Rowland opined that the fire was incendiary.4 Id. Mr. Rowland reached this conclusion because he eliminated all potential accidental causes of the fire, such as lightning, chemicals capable of spontaneous ignition, fire sources from the exterior of the house, overheated or overloaded electrical systems, household devices plugged into a power source, and explosions due to the release of natural gas. Id. at 8. Mr. Rowland’s belief that the fire was incendiary was further bolstered by evidence indicating that there were (1) multiple areas of origin, (2) insufficient fuel loads in the areas of origin to sustain a fire, (3) no reasonable accidental or natural ignition sources in the areas of origin, and (4) the fact that the Rental Property was unlocked before the fire. Id. at 7-8.

In addition to the report from the Clifton Fire Department, Allstate retained Phoenix Investigations for a second opinion on the origin and cause of the fire. Docket No. 42-8 at 1. Jason Kramarczyk, a certified fire and explosion investigator with Phoenix Investigations, prepared a fire origin and cause report. To conduct his investigation, Mr. Kramarczyk examined the interior and exterior of the Rental Property, interviewed Mr. Sipes and his neighbors, and contacted the Clifton Fire Department for a copy of Mr. Rowland’s report. Id. at 2. Based on his investigation, Mr. Kramarczyk made the following [1082]*1082findings: (1) the fire originated near the floor area surrounding the north wall of the kitchen to the left/west of the cabinets; (2) all accidental causes of the fire were examined and eliminated; (3) the fire damage was not consistent with the fuel load reportedly present in the kitchen prior to the fire; and (4) the fire was most likely caused by an unidentified human act. Docket No. 42-8 at 1. Mr. Kramarczyk, however, could not opine as to whether the unidentified human act was intentional. Docket No. 47-6 at 5 (Kramarczyk Dep. 155:18-20).

In addition to the fire origin and cause reports, Allstate retained Ms. Booker to prepare a coverage analysis opinion. On August 31, 2010, Ms. Booker issued a coverage analysis opinion based on a review of the fire origin and cause reports, a deposition of Mr. Sipes, and an analysis of the case law applicable to Mr. Sipes’ claim. Docket No. 42-3 at 1. Ms. Booker concluded that there was a “reasonable good-faith basis upon which to deny Mr. Sipes’ property damage claims as an intentional act excluded from coverage.” Docket No. 42-3 at 8.

Ms. Booker opined that Allstate also had sufficient evidence to deny Mr. Sipes’ coverage claim based on the defense of arson. Docket No. 42-3 at 5-6. Specifically, Ms. Booker found that the fire origin and cause reports and the relevant interviews sufficiently established that (1) there was evidence of arson, (2) Mr. Sipes had a motive to commit arson, and (3) the circumstantial evidence supported a finding of arson. Id. at 5-7. With regard to evidence of arson, Ms. Booker reasoned that the findings from the fire origin and cause reports conducted by Mr. Rowland and Mr. Kramarczyk showed that “an intentionally set fire [was] the only fire cause scenario that fits with both the fire’s origin being distant from a fuel load and the cause of the fire in an area distant from any other potential causes.” Id. -at 6. As to motive, Ms. Booker opined that mold in the Rental Property gave Mr. Sipes a motive to commit arson because: .(a) Mr. Sipes claimed that he did not know the extent of the mold even though two different tenants had reported the mold; (b) the mold was the reason the Wesolowskis — the prospective tenants of the Rental Property — chose to break then-lease agreement; and (c) Mr. Sipes specifically denied the existence of mold in the Rental Property when first questioned by Mr. Rowland and conceded its existence only after Mr. Rowland interviewed the Wesolowskis. Id. at 6. Additionally, Ms. Booker opined that Mr. Sipes could have had a financial motive to commit arson because a report prepared by Larry Engrav, an accountant, concluded that Mr. Sipes did “not receive reportable income sufficient to cover his household expenses.” Id. at 4. Finally, Ms. Booker found that the circumstantial evidence supported an inference of arson because it was suspicious that Mr. Sipes left the Rental Property unlocked and bought several gallons of easily returnable paint on the day of the fire, even though he allegedly did not personally inspect the mold. Id. at 6-7. In particular, Ms. Booker found that Mr. Sipes’ purchase of paint without any color additive proved suspicious because Mr. Sipes could return the untinted paint for full value and it was reasonable to infer from the purchase that it was made to establish an alibi. Id. at 7.

After Ms. Littleton received the fire origin and cause reports and Ms. Booker’s coverage analysis, she prepared an “Outcome Summary,” which described Allstate’s analysis of Mr. Sipes’ coverage claim. Docket No. 42-6 at 1-2. Ms. Littleton’s summary concurred with Ms. Booker’s findings: it described the fire at the Rental Property as “suspicious,” noted that Mr.

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949 F. Supp. 2d 1079, 2013 WL 2467704, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80426, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sipes-v-allstate-indemnity-co-cod-2013.