Elks Settle Insurance Suit

After a six-year battle, the Glendale Elks this week expect to receive $1.7 million as settlement with an insurance company for loss of the club’s lodge in a January, 1986, arson fire, an Elks official said.

Money from the out-of-court settlement, minus an undisclosed amount in legal fees, will be put into a fund to build a new lodge, probably on the southern portion of the lot where the club’s former lodge stood at 120 E. Colorado St., said P. Dennis Keenan, legal adviser to the Elks.

The club has been stymied in its efforts to rebuild the lodge while it fought to collect proceeds from a $2-million policy carried by First State Insurance Co. of Boston. The insurance company said it paid only $212,000 on the claim because the Elks had announced plans to demolish the 1917 lodge shortly before the fire.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury in January decided that the club should receive $1.7 million, but that figure was reduced this month to $742,000 by Judge Jan A. Pluim, who ruled that the jury’s award was excessive.

The Elks also sought $6 million for interest, legal fees and punitive damages. After Pluim reduced the award, the insurance company and the Elks agreed to settle for the $1.7 million.