Federal court tosses lawsuit tied to fire at home rented by Sixer Tyrese Maxey

The owners of a home that was rented to Philadelphia 76ers’ star Tyrese Maxey, when it caught fire on Christmas Eve in 2021, are evaluating their options after the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit tossed a lawsuit tied to the incident.

Earlier this month, the court ruled against Jim and Dean Wang, as well as their mother, Yu Bai, after the trio filed a lawsuit against car manufacturing company, Maserati, alleging that a car sold to Maxey was defective and that the defect had caused the Christmas Eve fire at the home, located in Vorhees, New Jersey.

However, court documents said, Maxey owned and used the car — though, the court noted he drove it “infrequently” — since 2018, three years before the fire. And, the court also found that the vehicle had been serviced several times prior to Maxey’s arrival in New Jersey.

To support their case, the Wang family had submitted the opinion of a retired fire investigator who said he believed the fire “more likely than not” originated in the vehicle’s engine compartment.

Yet, in its opinion, the court said in the years since the fire occurred, other experts had not come to that same conclusion.

“Multiple experts, including local fire authorities and private experts hired by Maserati and non-party insurance companies, examined the vehicle and the residence. But none concluded that the vehicle was the cause of the fire,” court documents note.

In 2021, Camden County Fire Marshal determined the blaze was accidental.

The vehicle involved in this incident was destroyed in the fire, court documents also noted.

A year after the fire, ESPN reported that Maxey had returned to Vorhees at Christmastime, but that year he was in a new home.

Contacted Wednesday morning, an attorney for the Wang family said they were disappointed by the ruling and were evaluating their options.