Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Dispute over items lost in a fire

The fact that he paid you some money does not waive his right to deny owing you anything. If it did, people who wanted to be generous under such circumstances would have an incentive not to offer any money at all.

Whether you are entitled to any of the insurance money depends upon whether you and he owned some of the items jointly, whether any of the money was compensation for the loss of your property (assuming such a loss is covered), and precisely what the policy says.

If only his belongings were insured then you have no claim against the insurance proceeds. On the other hand, if he included in his claim items that he knows were not covered and got money for them from the insurer, then he has committed insurance fraud. This doesn't help you much, though, because he would have to return the payment to the insurer and would not owe it to you.

If the fire was your fiance's fault then he owes you the fair value of what you lost. You have provided no facts form which I can tell whether he is at fault or not. But the fact that you had belongings in his house does not make him your insurer, regardless of whether his own property was insured.

Also, if he unreasonably prevented you from retrieving your items *and* if you otherwise would have removed them before the fire, then you would have a viable claim against him for conversion and would be entitled to the value of what you lost, minus the amount you would have spent to move your things away.

Beyond this, I would need to know more about your arrangements with him and about the policy language before I could say whether you have any rights against him or what they might be.