PHILADELPHIA – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently dismissed an insurance company's lawsuit filed against the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) after a fire that started in a PHA building damaged neighboring property.
In the July 11 opinion, U.S. District Timothy J. Savage granted the PHA motion to dismiss the suit filed by Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance Company after determining that the PHA, as a commonwealth agency, has immunity.
Allstate sued the PHA for negligence on behalf of Felix and Evelyn Torres whose property was damaged by a Jan. 14, 2018, fire caused by a trespasser in an abandoned PHA building adjacent to the Torres’ home, court filings said.
The PHA filed a motion to dismiss, saying that as a commonwealth agency, it has immunity under the Pennsylvania Sovereign Immunity Act.
Allstate responded by claiming immunity does not apply to this case because of the real estate exception. But the court, in granting the motion to dismiss, said, “Because the fire was caused by a trespasser and not by an artificial condition or a defect of the PHA’s real estate, the exception does not apply.”
The opinion said the real estate exception would apply if a liable injury is caused by “a dangerous condition of commonwealth agency real estate,” adding that it is the plaintiff’s responsibility to “allege that the dangerous condition derived, originated or had as its source the commonwealth realty itself.”
The plaintiff also has to show that they could recover damages without the immunity and that the injury was caused because of the agency’s negligence, which would allegedly make the property unsafe, the opinion said.
Allstate had claimed a known squatter caused the fire and that the PHA was negligent because it “did nothing” to stop people from going into the building and did not properly secure the property, court filings said.
But the court said that while the complaint says the fire was caused by a trespasser, “it does not link the cause of the fire to any act or failure to act on PHA’s part.”
The court determined that PHA’s failure to secure the property or failure to make sure no one entered the abandoned building was not a direct cause of the fire.
The court dismissed the lawsuit but gave Allstate leave to file an amended complaint and properly argue the real estate exception.