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Following a two-week trial, a federal jury in Atlanta agreed with Travelers Insurance that a couple and their daughter seeking more than $700,000 in damages after a suspicious blaze destroyed their Lithonia home are due nothing and instead ordered them to reimburse the insurer more than $64,000. 

The award covered $25,000 Travelers paid the family for personal expenses and temporary lodging in the wake of the fire, and what it paid investigators, who determined the fire was deliberately set.  

Drew Eckl & Farnham partner Karen Karabinos, who represents Travelers with firm colleagues Douglas Burrell and Mary Alice Jasperse, said she does not have permission to comment.

The plaintiffs, Tracy Greene-Ali and Shukar Ali and their daughter, Isharah Ali, are represented by Decatur solos Donald Ellis and Marie Watson, the latter of whom joined the case a few days before trial. Ellis was unavailable for comment. 

According to their filings, the couple was in Savannah celebrating their anniversary in 2016 and their daughter, Isharah, was in Atlanta for the weekend when she got a call from a neighbor saying their house was on fire. 

Isharah arrived as DeKalb County firefighters were putting out the blaze and called her parents, who returned to Lithonia. 

They retained a fire consultant who determined that the fire started in a storage room and was likely caused by an electrical problem, according to plaintiffs' filings.

They filed a claim and, acting on an adjuster's instruction, Tracy Ali created a list of personal items destroyed in the fire and their original purchase value, which was estimated at nearly $138,000.

They also contacted a contractor to estimate the cost to repair the house, which he said would be about $388,000.

Travelers advanced the family $25,000 while it investigated the fire. Two investigators concluded the fire was deliberately set at two locations at the house, and laboratory testing found petroleum distillates in samples from debris in various locations. 

An electrical expert said there was no evidence an electrical malfunction was to blame. 

Travelers denied the claim "based on the evidence that the fire was intentionally set" by Isharah Ali or at a family member's direction, according to a defense pleading. 

"Travelers also denied the claim based on misrepresentations and concealments of material facts by plaintiffs relating to the existence and/or quality of personal property at the time of the fire," it said.  

The family sued Travelers Home and Marine Insurance Co. and the claims adjuster who handled the case in Georgia's Northern District in 2017, asserting claims for breach of contract, bad faith and fraud, libel, slander and defamation.

Travelers filed counterclaims for fraud and refund of the money it paid the Alis and its investigators, as well as litigation fees. 

There is no indication in the record of any mediation or settlement conference, and the case went to trial before Judge Eleanor Ross on Feb. 24.

According to the plaintiffs' portion of the pretrial order, the plaintiffs were claiming damages of up to $388,000 to repair the house, and an estimated replacement cost for their personal property of up to $360,252.

Evidence wrapped up around midday on March 5, and according to court notes jurors deliberated about five or six hours over two days before returning a verdict of $64,642 in favor of Travelers.