2 United States Court of Appeals 3 For the Second Circuit 4 ________

5 AUGUST TERM, 2022 6 7 ARGUED: JANUARY 12, 2023 8 DECIDED: APRIL 6, 2023 9 10 No. 21-2653 11 12 UNION MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, 13 Plaintiff-Appellant, 14 15 v. 16 17 ACE CARIBBEAN MARKET, NEERA RAMDIN, 18 Defendants-Appellees. 19 20 ________ 21 22 Appeal from the United States District Court 23 for the Eastern District of New York. 24 1:18-cv-01570 – Komitee, District Judge. 25 26 ________ 27 28 Before: CALABRESI, CHIN, and BIANCO, Circuit Judges. 29 ________

30 Plaintiff-appellant Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company (“Union 31 Mutual”) appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the 21-2653 Union Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. Ace Caribbean Mkt.

1 Eastern District of New York (Komitee, J.). This insurance subrogation suit arose 2 from a fire which started at 110-14 Liberty Avenue in Queens, New York, and 3 which damaged the neighboring buildings insured by Union Mutual. On appeal, 4 Union Mutual argues that sufficient circumstantial evidence shows that the 5 negligence of defendants-appellees Ace Caribbean Market and Neera Ramdin, 6 proprietor and owner of 110-14 Liberty Avenue, respectively, caused the fire. We 7 disagree. We therefore AFFIRM the district court’s grant of summary judgment 8 for the defendants.

9 10

11 ERIC T. BORON, Hurwitz & Fine, P.C., Buffalo, NY (Agnieszka Wilewicz, 12 Hurwitz & Fine, P.C., Buffalo, NY, on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellant 13 Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company. 14 DENNIS M. ROTHMAN, Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer, LLP, New York, 15 NY, for Defendants-Appellees Ace Caribbean Market, Neera Ramdin. 16 17

18 CALABRESI, Circuit Judge: 19 Plaintiff-appellant Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company (“Union 20 Mutual”) appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the 21 Eastern District of New York (Komitee, J.). On March 4, 2017, a fire started at 110- 22 14 Liberty Avenue in Queens, New York, spreading to and damaging four 23 neighboring buildings insured by Union Mutual. After an investigation, the fire

2 21-2653 Union Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. Ace Caribbean Mkt.

1 marshals concluded, but could not determine with certainty, that the fire

2 originated in the extension cords used by Ace Caribbean Market. Union Mutual

3 paid proceeds to the damaged neighboring buildings, and subrogated into their

4 owners’ tort claims. Union Mutual then sued Ace Caribbean Market and Neera

5 Ramdin (collectively, “defendants”), alleging that their negligent use of the

6 extension cords caused the fire. The district court granted summary judgment for

7 the defendants.

8 This case requires us to determine whether in an insurance subrogation case,

9 evidence that a fire may have originated in the extension cords is sufficient to show 10 that (a) the owners and proprietors were negligent in their use of the extension 11 cords and (b) if they were negligent, that negligence was the cause of the fire. We 12 hold that such evidence is not sufficient. We therefore affirm the district court’s 13 grant of summary judgment