A New York insurer is suing Tigo Energy and a New Jersey installer, blaming a faulty rooftop shutdown device for a six-figure warehouse fire.
Republic Franklin Insurance Company filed the subrogation complaint on May 20, 2026 in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, targeting Tigo Energy, Inc. and Advanced Solar Products (ASP) for more than $241,163.84.
The carrier says it paid more than $236,163.84 to its insured, Corporate Mailings (doing business as CCG Marketing Solutions), after a March 15, 2024 fire damaged the company's warehouse in Towaco, New Jersey. The insured incurred a $5,000 deductible.
The system at the center of the case is a rooftop solar setup ASP designed, procured and built under a July 19, 2021 engineer-procure-construct contract, using TS4-A-2F rapid shutdown devices (RSDs) made by Tigo. An RSD is a safety part that drops solar panel voltage when AC power is cut - the kind of thing firefighters rely on at an emergency scene.
According to the complaint, the system had problems early. Within the first eight months, several solar panel strings were giving improper readings and approximately seven RSDs had thermal damage. Tigo inspected the property in November 2022 and offered corrective actions but, the filing says, did not mention any issues with "crosstalk" - defined in the complaint's footnote as signal interference between RSDs and an inverter caused by intermingling of different strings or different inverters creating electromagnetic interference. The complaint also alleges Tigo's 2020 manual did not require, warn about or recommend a specific brand or type of connectors to prevent it.
By early 2024, the complaint says, the warning signals were piling up. Inverter logs showed four RSD shutdowns on February 26 and 27, 2024 in the absence of any fire, and certain RSD components were already overheating or showing thermal damage, according to the filing. ASP inspected the system on March 12, 2024. Three days later, an RSD suffered what the complaint calls an "internal thermal event," leading to electrical arcing and ignition of surrounding combustibles. The fire spread throughout the roof, the filing states.
For property carriers writing accounts with rooftop solar, the contract language matters.
Article 12 of the EPC Contract is a five-year express warranty stating that "the System shall be free from Defects in material and workmanship," and that the work will be free of defects in design, engineering and workmanship. Republic Franklin alleges ASP broke that warranty by installing a defective Tigo RSD.
Article 14 requires each party to indemnify the other for property damage arising out of "its own negligence, gross negligence, or willful misconduct relating to the subject matter of this Contract." The complaint alleges ASP failed to indemnify Corporate Mailings for the fire damage.
The complaint also alleges Exhibit I of the contract required ASP to name Corporate Mailings and its successors and assigns as additional insureds on its commercial general liability policy, and that ASP failed to do so - a claim with direct implications for CGL carriers writing solar contractors.
The six-count complaint pleads negligence and gross negligence against both companies, strict products liability under the New Jersey Products Liability Act (N.J. Stat. § 2A:58C-2), breach of contract and express warranty against ASP, and breach of implied warranty against both.
The allegations have not been tested in court. The defendants have not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled.
