The fire at a cheese factory in August 2018 in Salvatierra-Agurain, in the province of Álava, has brought Generali Seguros to court. The company Aldanondo Corporación Alimentaria, the largest manufacturer of cheeses with the Idiazabal denomination of origin and owner of brands such as Lana, El Pastor Vasco and La Quesería Vasca, accuses the insurer of non-payment of 40 million euros as a result of the incident, thereby that would have violated the contracted insurance policy.
Although Generali argued that the fire had been provoked, Vitoria’s Court of First Instance number 1 has considered it proven that this had not been the case and ordered the Italian insurer to pay 29.4 million euros. “None of the conducts indicated by the insurer as constituting fraud/fault appear as the cause of the fire,” judge Mónica Basurto ruled.
Both Generali and Aldanondo, in which the Saiona agrarian cooperative, among others, participates, filed appeals at the Provincial Court of Álava, where the hearing will take place tomorrow and it will be from then on when it will be known whether, as Generali says, “the nature of the The fire was not accidental, but caused by the plaintiff herself, who poured gasoline and White Spirit on a sweeping machine in charge in order to give the appearance of an accidental short circuit” or, as the company defends, and confirmed by the Ertzaintza and the Court of First Instance, the fire was accidental.
Aldanondo, which had 50 workers, was forced to stop production and lost its leadership in the market. With only 20 workers currently on the payroll, most of them in an Erte (Temporary Employment Regulation File) for three years, the company, which was one of the first in the DO Idiazabal, tries to recover “the damages and damages caused by breach of contract”.
The insurer defends itself
Generali assures, however, that the judgment of First Instance, “considers proven that none of the fire protection and safety measures included in the policy subscribed by Aldanondo were operational at the time of the accident.” It also recalls that “the opposition to the civil lawsuit filed by Generali is declared reasonable, taking into account the prevailing circumstances, doubts subsisting about the true origin of the fire, with diverse analytical results.”
Héctor Fernández, general director of Aldanondo, explains, for his part, that “the sentence recognized the 29 of the reconstruction and the stocks”, but also insists that “Aldanondo had a turnover of 12 million euros and after three years the market has been lost and time”.
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