Located in Luzhu District, Taoyuan, Taiwan's largest low-temperature warehouse "Meifu Warehouse" broke out in a fire in March 2022. The fire burned for 21 days. Goods worth 350 million yuan stored by Zhengxian Company were burned. Although it received a property insurance claim of more than 220 million yuan, Zhengxian As the loss of more than 43.86 million yuan was still unpaid, it sued Meifu for compensation. After hearing the case, the Taipei District Court held that based on the fire scene investigation report, the cause of the fire could not be confirmed and there was no way to prove that it could be attributed to the manager. The lawsuit was lost and Meifu Storage was exempted from compensation.
The fire that broke out on the evening of March 10, 2022 lasted for three weeks before it was completely extinguished. The fire investigation report pointed out that the fire point was located near the 4B freezer on the 4th floor of the warehouse. The cause was determined to be an electrical fire, which caused the Zhengxian Company's goods stored in the warehouse to be burned.
Cathay Century Product Insurance Company first settled a claim of more than 228.78 million yuan to Zhengxian, and then sought compensation from Meifu. Cathay won the first trial, and Meifu should pay the full amount. Meifu appealed, and the High Court still found that Meifu Warehousing Company was poorly managed in March this year. Cathay Pacific's claim was well-founded and rejected Meifu's appeal. Appeals are still possible.
Zhengxian filed a lawsuit claiming that although it received a compensation of more than 220 million yuan from the property and casualty insurance company, there was still a loss of more than 128.79 million yuan of goods, and all the goods had to be repurchased. After calculating the price difference between purchasing and transferring goods, an additional 20.41 million yuan was required, and the total loss of 149.21 million yuan should be compensated by Meifu. After calculating the compensation with the compensation, more than 43.86 million yuan was still insufficient to pay off, so it sued Meifu Storage for compensation.
Meifu Warehouse responded that the staff reported the fire immediately after discovering it, and the fire department rushed to put out the fire. Unexpectedly, after the initial extinguishing, it re-ignited for unknown reasons, causing it to continue to smolder for 21 days. The fire investigation could not determine the cause of the fire, and could only rule out the possibility of spontaneous combustion substances and cigarette butts igniting the fire. The final comprehensive analysis concluded that the electrical fire was just a hypothesis; when the initial extinguishing was carried out, the fresh goods in the freezer were not burned, but were burned after re-ignition, so the responsibility is unclear; the installation and maintenance of the refrigeration and refrigeration equipment, electrical equipment, and fire-fighting equipment were all legal and compliant, and the management had no fault liability.
The judge of the Taipei District Court determined that the disputed evidence could not reasonably prove the cause of the fire. According to the fire investigation certificate and the words of the appraiser, the cause of the fire could not be determined. It could only be determined by the deletion method that electrical factors were more likely, but the process of the fire and the origin of the fire could not be determined. Because it is still unclear, it is difficult to prove that the loss has a causal relationship with Meifu's warehousing management; and the burning of the goods in Zhengxian was caused by the extended burning situation that was not handled in time. It cannot be attributed to the manager, and it cannot be proved that Meifu should be responsible. Therefore, Zhengxian's claim was rejected. Can be appealed.
