THE WIFE of a man who is suing over an insurance company’s alleged refusal to pay €900,000 on a policy after a fire destroyed their home told the High Court yesterday she was with her husband at all times on the night of the blaze.
Evelyn Michovsky said there were no reasons why her husband or anybody else would have caused the fire, as was being claimed by the insurance company. “Why would he do that? It was our house,” she said. She was giving evidence on the second day of the action by computer engineer Josef Michovsky against Allianz plc.
It is alleged the company failed to honour a contract of insurance taken out in January 2002 for the 137-year-old Glebe House, at Drumalese, Dromahair, Co Leitrim.
Mr Michovsky bought it for £250,000 in the early 1990s and restored it before moving in with his wife and four children.
Allianz claims the fire was deliberately started either by Mr Michovsky or someone else. It says gardaí found someone had deliberately interfered with the diesel supply valve to the boiler and that accelerant was found in the boiler room, a stairwell and the kitchen. It also claims gardaí found no sign of a forced break-in.
The company claims the policy was subject to exclusions for malicious damage carried out by any person lawfully on the premises. They also contend the policy is void by reason of any breach by the policyholder of conditions and warranties relating to misrepresentation and by reason of fraud.
The court heard Mr Michovsky, his wife and daughter were sleeping in an annexe to the main house when the fire broke out at about 3am. They escaped through a window and raised the alarm by driving to a neighbour’s home.
Yesterday Mr Michovsky described as an “evil suggestion” the company’s claim he deliberately started the fire. He had done everything to co-operate with Allianz in its investigation, he added.
Ms Michovsky said her husband was not out of her sight from when they had dinner on the night of the fire to when they went to bed at 11pm. She would also have heard him if he had got up, she said.
An auctioneer, John Ryan, who put the house on the market a few months before the fire, said there had been three definite expressions of interest from potential buyers but no firm offers had been advanced. The hearing continues before the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns.