American National Fire Insurance v. Schuss

The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether the plaintiff, American National Fire Insurance Company,1 produced sufficient evidence for a jury to find that the defendant, Barry Sehuss,2 acted negligently, rather than intentionally, when he set fire to a synagogue in West Hartford in the early morning hours of August 11, 1983. The fire destroyed, among other things, the synagogue’s Torah scrolls, which were located in the ark in the main sanctuary.

The plaintiff appeals3 from the judgment of the trial court, rendered after a jury trial, setting aside the jury’s *770verdict in the plaintiffs…