A former Lloyds underwriter whose 17th century Grade II listed farmhouse was gutted by fire claimed in the High Court today that the blaze was caused by a faulty washing machine.
In a hotly-disputed £1 million legal battle between insurers, Quinton Lovis, 53, and his wife Michele sued manufacturers Hoover and the machine’s suppliers Dixons.
Mr Lovis told Mr Justice Buckley in the High Court how he raised the alarm and led his wife and son Alexander, now 21, to safety as the fire swept through Mantells Farm, Aldham, Colchester, Essex, on the night of February 24 1999.
Backed by evidence from fire officers and other experts, Mr Lovis is claiming that the fire was sparked by a programmer fault in his two-year-old Hoover washing machine, which had a tendency to “stick” before going on to the spin cycle.
Hoover and Dixons suggest the blame lay elsewhere ““ the tumble dryer, perhaps, or the central heating boiler or desktop PC.
Mr and Mrs Lovis are understood to have received a pay-out from their house insurers and are still living at Mantells Farm, which has been extensively refurbished.
They were called as witnesses in a dispute between their insurers on the one side and Hoover and Dixons on the other.
The Lovis’s counsel, Christopher Purchas QC, told the judge that Mrs Lovis set the washing machine to come on after midnight.
Evidence suggested that a programmer fault started a fire which spread across the roof of the utility room ““ also containing a tumble drier and the boiler ““ to the billiards room, in which the computer was situated, and from there into the main house.
Mrs Lovis told the judge she hardly ever used the tumble drier and would normally take the plug out.
After moving to the farmhouse, she said, clothes were generally washed on the “woollens” setting and dried over the Aga.
The hearing continues tomorrow.
From The Scotsman