Sixth Circuit: Growing Marijuana is Not the Same as Buying a Houseplant or Entertaining Visitors

Half of the states in this country have now legalized marijuana for medical use, and that has led to a number of small-scale growing operations in policyholders’ homes.  While not nearly as dangerous as cooking meth on the kitchen stove, such activities can nonetheless pose unacceptable risks of loss.  On Tuesday in Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. McDermott, 2015 WL 756206, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 3012 (6th Cir., Feb. 24, 2015), a unanimous panel of the Court of Appeals roundly rejected policyholder arguments that starting up such an operation did not represent a change in use or occupancy that the insured was required to bring to the insurer’s attention. In 2005, Kasey McDermott purchased a home in Bay City, Michigan…