Judge decides claimant’s vehicle damaged in car wash

THE mystery of how a car received extensive scratches to its paintwork was reviewed at length during a Small Claims sitting of Wexford District Court.

Judge Brian O’Shea concluded that the damage must have been done at the car wash in Crosstown and found in favour of claimant Catherine Deane from Ballyroe, Annesley, Blackwater.

She came to court as owner of 2003 registered Volkswagen Golf suing MDB Retail Limited of Crosstown Service Station owned by Sean Kinsella.

She told how the car was brought to be washed by her ex-husband one day in July and she discovered the scratching the following day. She claimed €2,000 as the cost of a complete re-spray.

Mr Kinsella reckoned that his garages at Rocklands and Crosstown had washed more than 200,000 vehicles in the past 13 years without receiving another such complaint.

He accepted that the Golf had been ‘destroyed with scratches’ but felt there was no way his business was to blame for the damage.

He brought a brush and mimed the procedure followed by his car wash personnel.

Judge Brian O’Shea responded that he would have preferred to see the CCTV footage showing exactly what happened on the day in question.

The judge said he must make a ruling on the balance of probabilities, and the only reasonable conclusion was that the damage occurred in the car wash.

The court did not know what caused it but the 15 scratches were not apparent before the visit to Crosstown.

He was not prepared to award the full amount sought, remarking that an 03 registered car was scarcely worth €2,000.

He made out a decree for €1,000 with €25 costs.