Appeals court upholds dismissal of case against resort after Poinsettia fire
In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the
Omni had been able to show that "Axis could not establish Omni's actions or inactions were a substantial factor" in causing the fire, according to the opinion, written by Presiding Justice
Associate Justice
Appellate attorneys in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Poinsettia fire started mid-morning
Propelled by hot, dry
The fire -- one of several in
Fire investigators officially ruled the cause as undetermined, unable to rule out that it had been started by a cigarette.
Omni had allowed smoking on the course. Although there had been two smokers -- one who smoked cigarettes, the other smoked cigars -- in a golf foursome that morning, there was no evidence that either had been smoking on the seventh hole.
In the lawsuit, the insurance company asserted that Omni had caused the damage "by allowing smoking on its golf course or by using combustion-engine maintenance and beverage carts not equipped with spark arrestors," according to the ruling.
An expert witness had testified that the possible cause of the blaze was either smoking materials or a spark from a beverage cart at the resort.
The initial suit, filed in
In a dissenting opinion filed Tuesday, Associate Justice
"If you have only two reasonable possibilities as to the cause of the fire, and there is substantial evidence that the defendant's negligence was responsible for both, it necessarily follows that defendant's negligence, more likely than not, was the cause of the fire," Dato wrote.
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