Articles by Ioanna Mantzipa

Technology

EAC ordered to pay €97,500 over house fire caused by short circuit

The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) has been ordered to pay €97,500 in compensation to a homeowner in Platanistasa village, Nicosia district, following a fire that broke out after heavy rainfall around midnight on 13-14 January 2012. The homeowner had filed a civil action against the EAC, claiming damages for her house and alleging the fire was caused by the authority’s negligence. After 11 years of legal proceedings, the Nicosia District Court upheld her claim and ordered the EAC to pay the amount plus statutory interest and legal costs. The action was based on the plaintiff’s claim that the fire was caused by a short circuit in EAC electrical cables located very close to the house and connected to it through a wooden meter box. According to findings from various expert examinations, the fire was due to an electrical short circuit, while any malicious or criminal act was ruled out. Evidence before the court showed that although the EAC had disconnected the meter from the owner’s house, the cables remained connected and live, resulting in them causing the fire. For its part, the EAC denied any responsibility, arguing the house was insured, the electricity supply had been cut off since 2011, and maintenance of the box and meter was the consumer’s responsibility. It further claimed the fire may have been caused by lightning rather than its networks, and that since power had been cut off, fire could not have been caused by its cables. Ten witnesses testified for the plaintiff and two for the EAC. In a 35-page decision, the court concluded the fire started from an installation under the EAC’s responsibility. The decision notes that “if there had been care and normal operation of the electricity supply system, no short circuit would have occurred in cables nor fire that spread to the house”. The court stressed that “the EAC, as an electricity supply company, especially a monopoly company for which consumers paid and pay high costs for electricity provision, must maintain its energy supply network safe under normal conditions (and normal conditions cannot but include rainfall, even so-called ‘bad weather’)”. The court pointed out that no evidence was presented of such extreme weather conditions that could not reasonably be expected to cause damage to an electricity network. There were simply, the court noted, some general and vague speculations about lightning without any additional or even corroborating evidence in that direction. Consequently, the court concluded, the principle of Res Ipsa Loquitur (“the thing speaks for itself”) must apply. In simple terms, in the normal course of events, a fire would not occur due to a short circuit after rain. Ultimately, 13 full years after the fire, the owner’s claim was accepted, and the court ruled in her favour, awarding compensation of €97,500 plus legal costs and statutory interest from the date the action was filed in 2014. The case was handled on behalf of the owner by lawyer Victoria Gavroudiou for the law firm Agathokleous – Neofytou and Co LLC.