A suburban Philadelphia man has decided to drop his legal battle against a Canadian couple he claimed had schemed to buy, and then burn down, his historic 19-bedroom mansion in an insurance-fraud plot.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on April 18 that both sides will split the $18.5 million insurance payout. That means they’ll get far more cash than either paid, or offered to pay, for the estate designed by Horace Trumbauer.
Jerald S. Batoff, a real estate executive who lived on the estate since 2001, will keep more than $7 million. Dean Topolinski, the Toronto businessman Batoff accused of arson and racketeering, will get the remaining $11 million plus the seven-acre tract in Radnor, Penn.
Fire officials have disagreed over the cause of the April 2012 blaze at the estate, which was built around 1885.
Topics Lawsuits
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Viewpoint: Japan’s $550B Bet on America—What it Means for the US Insurance Market 
State Farm Agrees to $15M Settlement for Underpaid Vehicle Claims 
Three Sentenced in Bear-Suit Attacks Insurance Fraud Case 
State High Court Weighs in on Woman Taken for Organ Donation But Was Still Alive 
