Enemalta ordered to pay firm Lm24,000 for fire damage

Enemalta has been ordered to pay A. Montebello Tyres Limited Lm24,000 damages for a short circuit which led to a fire at the company's garage.

The company filed a writ of summons in the Civil Court in December 1991 and explained that it carried out its business from a garage known as Montebello Tyre Services in Bir id-Deheb Place, Zejtun, and a large quantity of tyres were stored in the garage.

The corporation provided the electricity to the garage and, in terms of the contract between the parties, Enemalta was bound to continually maintain the electricity supply and to ensure that the service worked normally and was not dangerous.

But the corporation had failed to fulfil its duties, for on December 15, 1986, the garage was extensively damaged by fire, and all the merchandise stored there was totally destroyed.

The magisterial inquiry and police report into the blaze had concluded that the fire was caused by a short circuit in the electrical cable provided by Enemalta.

This meant that the corporation had failed to fulfil its contractual obligations to maintain the electrical cable and Enemalta was therefore liable in damages.

Enemalta pleaded that the action filed by A. Montebello Tyres Limited was barred by lapse of time, and that in any event the corporation was not responsible for any damages.

The Civil Court noted that the preliminary plea of prescription had been dismissed by the court in 1992 and the judgment was therefore to be delivered solely on the merits of the case.

Mr Justice David Scicluna pointed out that Enemalta had submitted that the short circuit had been caused by unavoidable accident or was due to fair wear and tear.

Thus Enemalta was pleading that it was exonerated from any responsibility.

But the fire had been caused by faults attributable to Enemalta and the corporation had to make good the damages.

A works manager at Enemalta had testified that he had received a call from the corporation to disconnect the electricity supply to A. Montebello Tyres as this had caught fire.

The manager had immediately sent his staff on site to disconnect the service and it was discovered that some fuses in the substation 150 metres away had blown.

This was obviously a serious accident, said the court, and one would therefore have expected the corporation to investigate the cause of the short circuit.

No explanation was given as to how the fuses in the substation had blown.

The court added that the report filed by the technical expert had established that the corporation had failed to take the necessary precautions to prevent the accident.

The electrical cable supplied by Enemalta had caught fire, and in all probability, the fire was caused by a defect in the cable itself.

The lack of fuses or other equipment to prevent short circuits was another failure on the part of the corporation.

The court liquidated the damages at Lm24,007.30.