(Editor's Note: The following article is written by Melody S. Mosley, a partner at Cummins & White, LLP.)

Late one evening, a woman awakened to find her home on fire. Although she escaped unharmed, the house was completely destroyed. A fire department investigation later revealed her husband had intentionally set the fire. The couple technically owned the home together but planned to divorce, and the woman wanted to stay in the house. The home was insured, and so the wife submitted a claim. But was their homeowners' coverage still valid based on the intentional act of her husband? Did the wife have a right to recover? In California and in a growing number of states, the answer is “yes.”

Traditionally, when property was jointly owned, the innocent spouse would be out of luck because of the typical policy language barring coverage for fire damage because of the intentional act of a co-insured. The theory behind this result was to ensure the guilty party did not profit from the act. Now, however, recent court decisions are making it harder to enforce intentional act exclusions for “innocent co-insureds” in homeowners' fire losses no matter how the exclusion is worded.