Appeals court rules insurance company must pay owner of Gordonville convenience store that burned down in 2004

A Missouri appeals court this week ordered a Columbia, Mo.-based insurance company to pay almost $200,000 to the owner of a Gordonville convenience store that burned in an arson fire in December 2004.

No one has ever been charged in the blaze that destroyed the Gordonville Food & Fuel in the early morning of Dec. 2, 2004. The owner, Lisa Sparkman, sued Columbia Mutual Insurance Co. in November 2006 in an attempt to force the insurer to pay for the damage.

The Southern District Court of Appeals on Monday rejected Columbia Mutual's appeal of a jury verdict in Sparkman's favor.

Sparkman is the wife of Greg Sparkman, who is serving a 15-year federal prison sentence handed down in September 2006 on charges that he torched an auto dealership where he was a partner as well as two cars from the dealership lot. Sparkman was convicted Oct. 16, 2005, of arson, using arson to commit fraud and 13 counts of mail fraud.

At the time of the fire at Gordonville Food & Fuel, the Sparkmans were leasing the business to Vicki and Stanley Lampher with an option for the couple to purchase the property.

During the trial, which took place in Pemiscot County on a change of venue, attorneys for Columbia Mutual sought to portray the Lamphers as the arsonists, said Sparkman's attorney, John Cook of Cape Girardeau. "The defense asserted that either Mr. or Mrs. Lampher was responsible and the jury found that to simply not be true," Cook said. "No one asserted that Lisa or Greg Sparkman had anything to do with the fire."

Before the trial, Columbia Mutual paid $75,970.45 to satisfy the claim of Bank of America, the mortgage holder, but refused to cover the other losses. The jury awarded Sparkman the full value of her policy on the building and contents, $202,000, plus $49,995 in interest. After deducting the money paid to Bank of America and adding additional accrued interest, Columbia Mutual owes Sparkman $195,827, Cook said.

Columbia Mutual sought to reverse the award by claiming Judge Byron Luber had wrongly excluded testimony from Marcus Gross, a patron at the store who claimed to have overheard two women talking about a fire and a refund when he visited the store a few weeks before the fire. But because Gross could not say exactly who said what in that conversation, his testimony was excluded.

The exclusion denied Columbia Mutual a chance to establish a link between the Lamphers, their financial problems and the fire, but Gross' testimony wasn't strong enough to overcome the rule against hearsay, appeals court Chief Judge Gary Lynch wrote in his opinion.

"It was the weakest proposed testimony I ever heard," Cook said Tuesday. "The funny part was that he thought absolutely nothing of this until three weeks later."

Columbia Mutual also unsuccessfully challenged a jury instruction on the amount of the award.

Brad Hansmann, an attorney for Columbia Mutual, declined to discuss the decision. He said he has not conferred with his client to determine whether the company wishes to seek a rehearing or try to appeal the ruling to the Missouri Supreme Court.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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