By ANNELI FOGT

Editor

A King County jury has ruled in favor of the insurance company that cited arson as the reason it refused to reimburse a local family for the value of their home after a November 2010 fire destroyed it.

After a trial that lasted more than one month, ten of the 12 jurors assigned to the civil case between Dennis Schmidt and Wendy Demeter and their insurance company American Commerce Insurance Company (ACIC), decided Monday that the fire on Paige Lane was arson.

“The jurors came to a verdict and delivered rather quickly,” King County Superior Court Bailiff Theodore Hong said in a Monday email. “…the jurors found that Mr. Schmidt set fire to the home.”

The couple’s attorney, Karen Koehler, responded Monday by saying that the couple “did not set the fire that destroyed their beautiful home.”

“Sometimes juries do not get it right,” Koehler said. “This is one of those times.”

According to court documents obtained by The Beachcomber, Demeter and Schmidt filed the case in 2011 claiming the insurance company wrongly denied them coverage in refusing to reimburse them for the home. However, the insurance company stated that Schmidt’s explanation of how the fire started was “scientifically impossible.” Schmidt reportedly told officials that he was testing out the family’s portable generator when a spark lit nearby fuel aflame.

ACIC’s investigators reportedly found the cause of the fire was arson, court documents show, though the official investigation with the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) is still open.

KCSO spokeswoman Cindi West said Monday that the detective is still investigating the nearly five-year-old case and that no criminal action will be taken against Schmidt because of the civil ruling.

“Just because a jury said it’s arson, doesn’t mean it’s arson,” West said. “(The KCSO) still needs (its) own probable cause.”

The attorney for ACIC, Arezou Arefi-Afshar, could not be reached for comment.