A single family home in the Central Valley of California was damaged by a fire. The fire was caused by power lines hitting each other, causing molten metal to fall on dry grass. The fire spread across many acres until ultimately damaging our assured's home.

Interestingly, the lines were not owned by a major utility but by a large landowner--an energy company which owned vast acreage. I contacted the energy company, which advised it did not own the power lines at the time of the loss in Sept. I requested and the energy company provided the purchase contract detailing the assumption of liabilities between the selling entity and the energy company, and the energy company, for tax reasons, entirely legally "backdated" the purchase to a month before the fire. Thus, the energy company was not on title at the time of the fire. However, due to contract language, it accepted liability and settled the claim. (20246).