AN INSURANCE company has been ordered by the High Court to pay out more than €1 million on a policy for a protected house in Dublin which was destroyed in a fire nearly six years ago.
AIG Europe (Ireland) Ltd, Merrion Road, Dublin, was ordered to pay €1,015,000 to Manor Park Homebuilders Ltd arising out of the fire in Ongar House in Clonsilla, where film star Rita Hayworth once stayed.
The 19th-century period house was used as Manor Park’s offices at one stage but the company moved to accommodation at a new building site. The house was unoccupied after April 2001 and was destroyed by fire on the night of September 14th/15th, 2002.
Planning permission was subsequently given to have it demolished and replaced with a modern building, to reflect the form and appearance of the original.
After the fire, the insurers, AIG, repudiated the policy on grounds of alleged misrepresentation and non-disclosure of certain matters, including that the alarm did not work at the time of the fire as the electricity had been disconnected.
Mr Justice Bryan McMahon yesterday ruled that the policy did cover the fire and costs of reinstatement and ordered AIG to pay out for the amount insured.
The case centred on whether the burglar alarm system was working at the time Manor Park entered into the policy with AIG, even though, as part of the conditions of the policy, the electricity supply had to be disconnected.
Mr Justice McMahon found the alarm was working at the time and rejected AIG’s claim that, if it was working, blocking-up work carried out on the windows and doors would have rendered it inoperative in any case. The fact that blocks were laid from the outside so as not to interfere with the wooden surrounds of the doors and windows would not have interfered with the alarm, he said.
Even if the alarm had not been working, it was not material to the risk, the judge ruled. A burglar alarm “was well nigh superfluous”, particularly as there was mobile patrol security on site.
Mr Justice McMahon found Manor Park was entitled to full reinstatement costs, not just demolition and associated costs. It was the duty of the insurer to make its own inquiries in relation to the insurance contract, he said.