recovering for water damage from fire

[drjudithvolpe]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York City Civil Codes

recovering for water damage from fire
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York City Civil Law Codes
Liability for fire damages, New York Civil Code
A fire in my neighbor's condo two floors above me caused extensive water damage to my personal property and my apartment.I did not have home owner's insurance at that time. My neighbor's insurance company claims that it is not liable for the damages to my unit on the grounds that the cause of the fire was never determined. I am taking him to small claims court in nyc and wonder if and how i need to prove liability aside from proving damages. The fire was not an act of G-d, nor was it cause by electrical fire or a flaw in major appliance, the fire department stated that the fire was caused by an external heat source which caused cardboard left on the Kitchen counter top to catch on fire.However,since the exact sequence of events was not determined, they listed the cause of the fire as indeterminate even though the report suggested stove/cooking. It occurred on a Sat. morning, the family left the apt early, fire occurred 90 min later, on kitchen counter top Please help. Thank you. Am i on the right forum or is there a better one? Thank you!
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[Banned_Princess]

please just post this story one time, go back, delete the other 2.

Doesn't matter where you put it, it only matters you post it once.

you posted this 5 times? Go back and delete them all, now please.

 

[drjudithvolpe]

reply to banned princess

I am very new to this forum stuff and basically don't know what I am doing. I posted a number of times because with the first posts I forgot to put Email notifications of responses and if I didn't do that I wouldn't be able to find my way back here and get my responses. I don't know which posts have instant Email notification and which don't so I don't know which to relete. In the second place, this is a small claims court case that involves both homeowners insurance and a condo situation so it does belong in 3 places. My case is Thursday Jan 14 so please give me a break! I don't know how to reply to you personally so I am doing this. I went to your profile to try to send you a private reply... the friend request was a TOTAL mistake.

 

[justalayman]

Pick one of the posts and delete the others. Ask questions on the forum and you will get responses on the forum.

of course your neighbors insurance is not liable for the damage. If anything, they neighbor is and if he is and has insurance that covers this, then they will pay in place of the neighbor.

, the fire department stated that the fire was caused by an external heat source which caused cardboard left on the Kitchen counter top to catch on fire.

sounds like what you need to present to the court right there. Those appear to be all the facts you have so what else can you submit?

the problem now is, was the neighbor negligent? That is going to be harder to prove. If the fire started on the stove, then it would seem the courts would accept that it was. If it wasn't on the stove, it is going to be harder to prove. There have been cases (one just recently somewhere) where a fire was started by the sun shining through a piece of glass that focused the light and yes, that is an act of God.

I would suggest either a report or pictures that show where the fire started are going to be very important to your case.

 

[drjudithvolpe]

fire/water damage negligence

Dear Justalayman, Thank you for your response. I am suing my neighbor as an individual for a judgement. However, the lawyer for the insurance company keeps coming to court and trying to make the case about the insurance company's liability. Should I make a complaint about this to the judge/court?
There was no window and no act of God. Fire occurred on countertop adjacent to stove. Wiring and appliances were thoroughly studied and ruled out as it is a new building and owners were worried. Fire occurred about 90 minutes after family left apt in the morning. I thought civil court went on "reasonable certainty", which is greater than 51%. The most likely scenario is that the family got up, had breakfast, and left an external heat source on in the kitchen, which is negligence...but if its arson he's still personally liable to me. How many causes of a fire are there other than act of God, wiring or appliance defect,negligence and arson? Thanks, Judith

 

[ecmst12]

That's not how it works. The standard in civil court is "preponderance of the EVIDENCE", not the most likely scenario. You need to have EVIDENCE of negligence, which would be the fire marshall's report, but the report doesn't indicate that there was any evidence of negligence.

His insurance company is involved because it is their job to defend him against liability lawsuits like yours.

Frankly, this is YOUR fault for not having the proper insurance to protect yourself.