PETOSKEY, Mich. – An insurance company has filed a lawsuit seeking $1.8 million from Hallmark Cards and another company over a defective snow globe blamed for a fire that destroyed a home in northern Michigan.

The Jumbo Snowman snow globe was recalled in December 2008, weeks after a fire destroyed the Petoskey home of Stephen and Florence Hajek, who own two card stores. Federal regulators at the time said the globe could act as a magnifying glass in the sun and cause a fire.

Auto-Owners Insurance paid $1.8 million after the Hajek home was destroyed.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 2 in federal court in Grand Rapids, accuses Hallmark and a Taiwan company of negligence and product liability. It claims “inappropriate materials in the shell and interior fluid” of the globe caused an unsafe medium for sunlight to pass through.


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