Gagnon v. Alliance

Gagnon v. Alliance (Second Judicial District Washoe Co. 1990)

THE CASE OF THE EAGER ARSONIST

Mr. Cashill successfully defended Alliance Insurance Company in an action brought by “No Bread Fred” Gagnon, a local contractor, who sued Alliance for its alleged bad faith refusal to pay benefits under a fire insurance policy which Gagnon had on the Dayton Inn, in Dayton, NV.

The evidence showed, among other things, that the day before the fire (found by the State Fire Marshall to be arson caused), “No Bread Fred” (so named because he left many subcontractors unpaid on jobs around town) was observed by a neighbor to be loading works of art, antiques, and other valuable property into his motor home, which he later claimed were lost in the fire.

It is often said that spontaneous combustion is the result of friction between the mortgage and the insurance policy. “No Bread Fred’s” claim that the fire was the result of “spontaneous combustion” proved this point. That Mr. Gagnon also lost his home in an arson caused fire weeks before the Dayton Inn Fire, was the icing on the case.