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3 April 2006
Two businesses had warehouse/factory buildings adjoining an empty building which had been acquired by a local authority under compulsory purchase. The roofs of the two units were joined to the empty building by means of a wooden beamed roof.
The empty building attracted vandals at the weekends and at night. Vandals came into the empty building to seek copper wiring which still remained there, because they could burn off the rubber casing and sell the copper.
They set fires in the empty building to burn off the rubber.
In the empty building there was a timber section building/portacabin which filled the building space and almost touched the roof. It was therefore an accident waiting to happen in the event of fire.
Repeatedly, our clients notified the local authority that there were vandals regularly entering the building and that they were setting fires and that the fear was of fire spreading via the timber building and the roof. They told a fire officer about this and he passed the message on to the local authority. However, complaints were not formally documented.
Then one night, the vandals set the fire in the timber building, which went up like a tinderbox. The fire spread fast along the roof and burnt the adjoining buildings. Two businesses went up in smoke.
The general rule of law and the evidence were against our clients. Generally, before FK came along, a building owner could not be responsible for the acts of vandals. Also, our clients' complaints were not recorded in letters.
FK got over both these problems. We found the exception to the legal rule and made new law by creating the first case that fitted into that exception. We also found the fire officer early on, before the local authority got to him, and got hold of his notes in his file recording the complaint and all the reasons for it. So it could be proved that the local authority well knew all the circumstances.
The case was a success but the success had to be reaffirmed in the Court of Appeal. It won with flying colours and provided seven figure compensation for each of the two businesses involved.
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