Accidental Fires Act 1943

coylemj

There is a thread over on Motors which addresses the issue of legal liability in the case of a car fire in a shopping centre. A car went on fire and the car next door caught fire and was destroyed but the insurance company of the first car's owner is denying liability to the owner of the second car on the basis of the Accidental Fires Act 1943.

My reading of the act is that it protects the owner of land or a building from a clam arising from accidental damage caused by a fire which occurred on their premises but in this situation I can't see that it protects the owner of the car which went on fire.

Comments welcome, the thread on motors (link below) has more details but above is the gist of the event.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056794546

The act itself is relatively short. My interpretation is based on the fact that the first subsection refers to 'the building or land of another person' and (a) refers to 'such other person' and not 'any other person'......

1.—(1) Where any person (in this section referred to as the injured person) has suffered damage by reason of fire accidentally occurring (whether before or after the passing of this Act) in or on the building or land of another person, then, notwithstanding any rule of law, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—

(a) no legal proceedings shall, after the passing of this Act, be instituted in any court by the injured person or any person claiming through or under him or as his insurer against such other person on account of such damage;

(b) if, in case the fire occurred before the passing of this Act, any such legal proceedings were instituted after the 16th day of November, 1942, and before the passing of this Act, and are pending at such passing, such legal proceedings shall be discharged and made void, subject to such order as to costs as the court in which such legal proceedings are pending or a judge thereof thinks fit to make.

(2) Nothing contained in sub-section (1) of this section shall be construed as affecting legal proceedings for the enforcement of any covenant or agreement contained in any lease or letting of a building or land.

(3) In this section the word “building” includes any structure of whatsoever material or for whatever purpose used.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1943/en/act/pub/0008/print.html

Skyfall

Milk & Honey

That Act was passed after the great fire of Athlone in 1940 and was a reaction to the decision in
HILDA RICHARDSON and ELSIE WEBSTER , Plaintiff v. THE ATHLONE WOOLLEN MILLS CO., LTD., Defendants
[1942] 581 1 I.R.

It would all turn on whether a car is a building within the meaning of that act. I would think not.

coylemj

Milk & Honey wrote: »

That Act was passed after the great fire of Athlone in 1940 and was a reaction to the decision in
HILDA RICHARDSON and ELSIE WEBSTER , Plaintiff v. THE ATHLONE WOOLLEN MILLS CO., LTD., Defendants
[1942] 581 1 I.R.

Thanks, I read that there was a Supreme Court decision in 1942 which decided that a similar act passed in 1715 (repealed by the 1943 act) didn't cover a factory so obviously new legislation was passed soon after to clarify the situation.

Going slightly OT but as I'm the OP I'll grant myself a bit of latitude....

The Woolen Mills fire was the biggest ever seen in Athlone, the army was called out to blow up adjacent buildings to create a fire gap. Locals were woken up by the bombs going off, looked out and saw the flames from the fire and thought the town was being bombed by the Luftwaffe!

Kosseegan

coylemj wrote: »

Thanks, I read that there was a Supreme Court decision in 1942 which decided that a similar act passed in 1715 (repealed by the 1943 act) didn't cover a factory so obviously new legislation was passed soon after to clarify the situation.

Going slightly OT but as I'm the OP I'll grant myself a bit of latitude....

The Woolen Mills fire was the biggest ever seen in Athlone, the army was called out to blow up adjacent buildings to create a fire gap. Locals were woken up by the bombs going off, looked out and saw the flames from the fire and thought the town was being bombed by the Luftwaffe!

There was no fire brigade in Athlone at the time and the army was called out. The army engineer in command couldn't get men close enought to the fire and ordered the occupants of a building to vacate at two minutes notice. He then blew up the building which was a doctors house and full of valuable antiques and drove trucks over the rubble.
The engineer was disciplined for not following "proper military protocols" and was reduced in seniority. He continued to serve in the army in Athlone for decades after and designed a number of housing estates around the town as well as becoming the senior army engineer in Athlone.
The