SAN DIEGO - A Superior Court jury has sided with a large insurance company in what is believed to have been the first trial in San Diego County over allegations that people who lost their homes in wildfires of 2003 did not have enough insurance coverage to rebuild.

Hundreds of lawsuits were filed throughout the state alleging underinsurance in the aftermath of the wildfires, which included the Cedar fire in San Diego County.

About 20 more lawsuits against Allstate Insurance involving similar allegations still are pending in San Diego.

Late Wednesday afternoon, a jury in Judge Ronald Styn's courtroom returned a unanimous verdict in which jurors decided that Allstate did not conceal from or misrepresent important information about coverage to a Julian couple who lost their home in the Cedar fire.

"The jury found that Allstate and its agent did nothing wrong," R. Randal Crispen, Allstate's attorney, said Thursday.

What effect, if any, Wednesday's verdict will have on the other pending cases against Allstate was unclear Thursday.

Crispen said each of the cases is different and must be dealt with individually.

"I don't know what effect this case will have on the other ones," Crispen said.

Jerry Ramsey, the Julian couple's attorney who has said previously that he represents 200 homeowners in fire-related insurance lawsuits in six counties, could not be reached Thursday for comment.

The Cedar fire, which started Oct. 25, 2003, in the Kesslar Flats area of the Cleveland National Forest, became the largest wildfire in California history. More than 270,000 acres burned, more than 2,200 homes were destroyed, and 14 people were killed in the blaze, which stretched from Ramona and Julian to Interstates 8 and 15 and included portions of Poway and Scripps Ranch.

Jeff Fitzgerald and Marina Davidovskaya - a husband and wife referred to in court as the Fitzgeralds - sued Allstate after losing their home in the Cedar fire.

Ramsey told the jury at the start of the trial that his clients intended to rebuild their home in Julian, but had not done so yet. Debris remains at the site of their Apache Drive home, Ramsey told the jury.

Ramsey said an expert witness estimated the cost of rebuilding at $500,000, about $100,000 to $150,000 more than Allstate's cost estimates.

Crispen told the jury that Allstate already had paid the Fitzgeralds more than $400,000 in coverage contained in their insurance policy, which was more than enough to rebuild a home comparable to what they had before the blaze. The Fitzgeralds, however, were trying to get more money from Allstate because they wanted a larger, custom home, Crispen told the jury.

Crispen said Thursday that jurors told him after the verdict that they decided Allstate and its sales agent had done nothing wrong and that the insurance company had paid enough for the Fitzgeralds to rebuild a home comparable to what they previously had.

On its verdict form, the jury unanimously answered that Allstate did not intentionally fail to disclose an important fact to the Fitzgeralds, did not intentionally and falsely represent an important fact to the Fitzgeralds, did not negligently and falsely represent an important fact, and was not negligent.

- Contact staff writer Scott Marshall at (760) 631-6623 or smarshall@nctimes.com.