Janice Mucalov, LL.B.
Contributing Columnist
ON Dec. 14, 1992,

Georgina Gecho’s hus-
band burnt down her
house in Nelson.

Georgina and Robert had
been married for nwo years
and were living in her home,
along with her 13-year-old

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daughter from a”

previous rela-

tionship. But the

mariage was

stormy.

Georgina had

insured her

home with

BCAA Insurance

Corporation.

But the policy

excluded loss

from intentional or criminal

acts by the insured or the

insured’s spouse. It looked like

Georgina would not be able to

collect the insurance on her

destroyed home. A closer

reading of the insurance policy

yielded a clever argument by

her lawyer, however. The poli-

ey only excluded intentional

damage by the insured or the

insured’s spouse “while living

in the same houschold.”
Georgina and her husband

had been on the verge of sepa-

rating. During their marriage,

he often left home after one of

their frequent fights. The year

before the fire, she asked him

to leave for good, and he

agreed. He rented a room in a

friend’s trailer, but hadn’t yet

moved his belongings out of

the house. While he continued

to stay overnight in her house,

he slept on the couch.

. Could he realty
be said to have
been “living in
the same house-
hold”? In 3 pre-
vious case, the
Supreme Court
of Canada
decided that a
brother who
boarded with
the insured’s
family wasn’t a member of the
insured’s household because
his stay, while indetinite, was
meant to be temporary. And in
another B.C. case, an adult
son house-sitting for his par-
ents while they were away on
holidays was also found not to
be a resident of the houschoid
because his stay was only tem-
porary too. The B.C. Supreme
Court agreed with Georgina’s
lawyer. The judge said Robert
was only temporarily living in
Georgina’s home out of her
fear and, at best, her sufferance
of him. He wasn’t living in the
same household, in part,
because the marriage was no
longer a loving and intimate
relationship. Since he wasn’t
living in the same household,
his intentional torching of the
house wasn’t excluded, and
the insurer would have to pay.
But the insurer appealed.

In May 1997, the B.C. Court
of Appeal decided thar while
the Gechos* relationship was-
n’ta close one, they were still
connected to each other. The
night of the fire, they’d gone
toa party together. Robert
was still Georgina’s husband,
living in her home at the time
he maliciously and criminally
sct the fire. In the end, her
loss wasn’t covered by the pol-
icy. While unfortunate for
Georgina, the court noted
there is goud reason for pre-
venting people from claiming
damage to property they own.
Theoretically, a couple could
try to defraud an insurance
company by having the spouse
not named as the insured set
fire to it sx» the named spouse
could collect. The insurer is
only protected if the policy
also automatically insures the
unnamed spouse.

If your insurer won’t pay
for something that's becn
damaged, a lawyer may be able
to help.

— This has been written
with the assistance of Daryl
Collier of the North Vancouver
law firs of RATCLIFF &
COMPANY, 988-5201. The
column provides information
only and must not be relied on
Sor legal advice.

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