FEBRUARY 24, 2015
DETROIT , MICHIGAN (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.
//---------------------------------------------------------//
LAWSUIT: MARIJUANA
PRODUCTION CAUSED BAY COUNTY, MICHIGAN HOUSE FIRE, INSURANCE COMPANY WANTS ITS
MONEY BACK
202 S. Woodbridge St. in Bay City
BAY CITY, MI
A Columbus, Ohio-based insurance company is suing a Bangor
Township resident, claiming it should be reimbursed the money it paid out for a
house fire caused by an illegal marijuana operation.
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company on Friday filed the suit
against Kasey McDermott. The suit states McDermott’s house at 202 S. Woodbridge
Street sustained a fire January 13, 2012. In accordance with McDermott’s insurance
policy, the company paid her and J.P Morgan Chase Bank a total of
$160,209.50.
According to the suit, McDermott’s husband, Brien Mathews,
was operating an illegal marijuana grow in the house’s basement. On Jan. 13,
Mathews, the suit alleges, “was performing an activity described as butane
extraction, which involves the use of highly flammable butane, which is passed
through a tube of chopped marijuana leaves and plant material to form a
substance referred to as butane honey oil, which extracts all of the THC from
the marijuana plant and leaf materials to convert low-quality marijuana into
high-quality oil to be used and sold.”
During this process, Mathews lit a flame while surrounded by
pans of flammable butane, thus sparking the house fire, the suit states.
Neither McDermott nor Mathews has been charged with a crime
in Bay County. The Times was unable to reach McDermott and Mathews for comment.
Though Mathews claimed to have been producing marijuana in
accordance with the state’s Medical Marihuana Act, Nationwide maintains he was
growing the substance beyond the letter of the law. McDermott violated the
terms of her policy by allowing such activity to occur in her house.
Click here to read the entire
suit.