MEEMIC files subrogation action; claim dismissed for lack of proof and failure to preserve evidence
A MEEMIC insured suffered a house fire and complete loss of her home and 3 vehicles. MEEMIC paid at least partial coverage for the loss and then sued Detroit Edison, claiming that it was responsible for the fire. The undisputed evidence showed that the fire started while power was out to the neighborhood. MEEMIC claimed, however, that its insured was served by a separate transformer.
The Court noted that this claim of "exception" to the neighborhood power outage was apparently based on MEEMIC's misunderstanding of the fact that a transformer doesn't generate power, but merely changes the voltage. Therefore, MEEMIC had not rebutted the experts' documentation of a lack of power to the insured home.The Court also noted that MEEMIC had failed to preserve the transformer for Edison to inspect. It did not sanction MEEMIC for the latter failure, however, since all experts agreed that with no power to the transformer, it's condition was irrelevant and there could be no claim against Edison.