Insurance company sues over roof collapse that alleged contaminated fish company's products; seeks $2.65M in damages

A fish company's insurer is seeking more than $2 million from the owners of a warehouse where food products were allegedly contaminated following a roof collapse.

Aspen American Insurance Co., as subrogee of Eastern Fish Company, filed a lawsuit July 14 in the Cook County Circuit Court against Interstate Warehousing and Tippmann Group, alleging breach of contract.

According to the complaint, Eastern Fish Company was insured by Aspen and delivered food products that were stored at the defendants' facility.  Aspen claims a roof collapsed at the warehouse, rupturing gas lines and causing an ammonia leak that contaminated its insured's food.

Aspen alleges it was informed its agents would be allowed to inspect evidence of the incident, but after attempting to visit the site four times, found much of the collapsed building had been removed.

The suit accuses the defendants of breach of contract, negligent bailment, negligence, intentional spoliation of evidence, fraudulent concealment, conversion and violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

Aspen is seeking an estimated $2.65 million in damages and is being represented in the case by Timothy S. McGovern, Daniel G. Wills and Anthony Bartosik of Swanson, Martin & Bell LLP in Chicago.

Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 2014L007376.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in the Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.