BELFAST, Maine — It has been more than two years since the Goose River Grocery & Trading Post on Swan Lake Avenue caught fire and more than a year since police arrested the man who claimed to own the store and charged him with arson and insurance deception.
Still, the case is far from being settled, and this summer, purported owner Kyle J. Skinner added another wrinkle when he sued his insurance company for failing to pay out on a policy he purchased a few months before the fire when he entered into a contract with store owners to buy the business.
Skinner filed suit in July against the Hanover Insurance Group of Worcester, Massachusetts, for breach of contract in regard to the policy he had purchased in April 2014. According to the lawsuit that was originally filed in Waldo County Superior Court but which was moved last month to U.S. District Court, the policy was in place in July 2014, when the fire substantially damaged Goose River Grocery.
Skinner and his attorney, Patrick J. Mellor of Rockland, wrote in the claim that the structural damage to the store added up to nearly $200,000 and the inventory loss was roughly $46,000. Although Skinner provided Hanover Insurance with all requested documents pertaining to the insurance claim, on Nov. 25, 2014, the company sent a letter to Mellor stating that the claim remained under investigation.
“To date, neither defendant nor defendant’s representatives have provided sufficient detail to permit plaintiff to understand or respond to the insurer’s position,” Skinner’s claim states. “Despite requests from plaintiff, defendant has failed to cover the damage to plaintiff’s property … the insurance agreement between the parties constitutes a contract. The defendant has breached the terms of the contract by failing to provide coverage for the damage to the plaintiff’s commercial property.”
Not so fast, responded the attorney for Hanover Insurance Group in an answer to Skinner’s claim that was submitted to U.S. District Court on Aug. 18. Skinner violated the conditions of the insurance policy, the attorney wrote, and his claim is “barred by his concealment, misrepresentation or fraud with respect to material facts concerning, among other things, the cause of the fire and his interest in the damaged party.”
A few months after the fire, Skinner was charged with arson and insurance deception after a joint investigation by members of the Belfast Police Department, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the National Insurance Crime Bureau and the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and his criminal trial is scheduled to begin in mid-October in Waldo County Superior Court.
“The Hanover insurance policy provides no coverage because, among other things, the damage to the property was directly or indirectly caused by the plaintiff’s dishonest or criminal act,” the attorney wrote in the answer to Skinner’s complaint.
Skinner is asking the court to grant damages, attorney’s fees and interest on damages at 1.5 percent per month.
Both parties are asking the court for a two-month stay of all proceedings in the civil action because of the pending criminal trial, according to a joint motion for stay that was submitted on Thursday, Sept. 8. The motion said that Skinner filed suit against the insurance company when he did because of the “imminent running of the applicable two-year statute of limitations,” and that delaying the civil proceedings for two months should allow the criminal trial to be completed.
The lawsuit against Hanover Insurance Group is not the only civil lawsuit Skinner filed in the aftermath of the fire. He also is suing Anne and Leslie Smith of Islesboro, the owners of record for the business, for breach of contract over the purchase-and-sale agreement both parties signed a few months before the fire. In the lawsuit, Skinner and his wife, Helen, said that the purchase-and-sale agreement stipulated that the Smiths would be solely responsible for insuring the property until the transfer of assets had been completed. If the property were damaged by “fire or any other casualty” before title was transferred, the Skinners would have the option of either purchasing the title and receiving the benefits of all insurance monies recovered by the Smiths or terminating the purchase agreement.
A Waldo County Court clerk said this week that the civil suit against the Smiths has been stayed until Sept. 26, 2016.