Company Will Cover Woman’s Arson Loss Safeco Insurance Changes Mind, Will Pay Ex-Wife Whose Husband Burned House
A Kent woman whose estranged husband burned down their house to prevent her from having it says she hopes to rebuild at the site with money from her insurance company.
Safeco Insurance Co., which initially refused to cover the loss, has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to Kittis Bolduc in a case that raised questions about insurance coverage for domestic abuse victims.
“For her, Thanksgiving will be a true Thanksgiving,” said her attorney, Patrick LePley.
Bolduc, 38, said Monday she hopes to rebuild at the semirural site in southeast Kent where her husband set fire to their four-bedroom rambler Jan. 24 as a final act of vengeance in their dissolving marriage.
“It’s been a really long, emotional and stressful last nine months, and now we can really start rebuilding our lives and looking forward to the future,”Bolduc said.
The fire destroyed the house and left Bolduc and her two children, Madeleine, 6, and Kelly, 4, homeless.
The couple were in the midst of divorce proceedings just before the fire, and they had drafted a separation agreement in which she was to be awarded the house if she paid $15,500 to him. Kittis Bolduc, who had moved out six months earlier, was moving her goods back in when the house was torched before the agreement was finalized.
Joseph Bolduc was found guilty of first-degree arson and sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Kittis Bolduc challenged Safeco’s refusal to cover, contending that she and her children were being unfairly punished as victims of domestic violence.
Safeco argued that the policy it sold the couple didn’t cover a deliberate loss by a policyholder.
King County Superior Court Judge Robert Lasnik ruled in Safeco’s favor in September, citing the strict terms of the contract. But Lasnik suggested that Safeco might be better off paying Bolduc because insurance companies like to tell the public “what a good friend” they are.
Bolduc asked the state Supreme Court to directly review the case.
She also told her story on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and joined Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and state Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn in Washington, D.C., in September to press for laws to make it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against victims of domestic violence.
Congress approved and President Clinton signed a measure last year barring insurers from denying health insurance based on a history of domestic abuse. But it didn’t cover all forms of insurance.
As Bolduc’s plight gained attention, Safeco approached her about resolving the case, and last week the parties reached what the Seattle-based insurer described as an “agreement outside the contract.”
“On the one hand, the contract was upheld,” said Safeco spokeswoman Pat Hillis. “On the other hand, we were faced with the policy of a woman who was the innocent victim of an arson.” Hillis noted that Safeco has given $750,000 in the past few years to domestic-violence programs.
The fire forced Bolduc and her children to move in with her sister in Bellevue. They lived there until moving into a two-bedroom apartment in Kent less than a month ago.
Bolduc said she has to find out what it will cost to tear down the charred remains of the old house and build a new one.
xxxx COMPANY POLICY Safeco had declined coverage because the fire was intentionally set by Joseph Bolduc, who told police he didn’t want his wife to get the house.