Hotel owner claims £ 8m from builder over blaze
THE owner of a luxury hotel and golf club is demanding £ 8million damages after claiming workmen almost burnt down his complex when they discarded a cigarette.
Matthew Rogerson says Wojciech Szajna’s employees must have dropped the dog- end onto a laundry bag while they “smoked profusely”.
The 70- year- old hired Mr Szajna to replace a set of storeroom windows at the Cottesmore Hotel, Golf and Country Club.
His lawyers say the repair work two years ago ended with a blaze tearing through the wedding venue at Pease Pottage, West Sussex.
Flames destroyed the health club, kitchen, function rooms and bar, despite 10 fire crews battling for seven hours to put out the fire.
In a High Court writ, Mr Rogerson argues Mr Szajna’s firm, Eco Top Heat & Amp Power, is guilty of “breach of contract and/ or negligence”.
He adds: “The fire was caused by a cigarette discarded by one of the defendant’s employees. The seat of the fire was the top of a laundry bag. The defendant’s employees who carried out the works smoked profusely.”
Cigarette
The writ said a builder’s cigarette “could have ignited the laundry” if it had been dropped either in a corridor nicknamed “the tunnel” or in a renovated barn area.
The hotel – with 26 rooms, seven catering lodges, two golf courses and tennis courts – was newly renovated but had to be extensively rebuilt.
A court clash before a judge is likely as both sides deny their employees could have dropped the cigarette.
Mr Rogerson’s lawyers argue that the hotel’s only staff member who smokes rarely lights up at work and was seen on CCTV without a cigarette when the fire started.
They also allege that two building workers who were claimed to be nonsmokers were spotted with cigarettes.
But Polish- born Mr Szajna says in his counter- claim that he is the firm’s only smoker and he was only on site for 10 minutes the previous morning – hours before the flames started on June 11, 2018.
His statement adds that 240 hours of continuous CCTV footage, taken over 11 days in the hotel’s courtyard, capture his workers 370 times but never with a cigarette.
“By way of contrast, the 240 hours of CCTV footage shows 136 separate instances of persons other than employees of the defendant smoking. Those individuals are mainly guests but also appear to include gardeners/ handymen and staff of the claimant.” Mr Rogerson’s side say the fire could not have been caused by arson or an electrical fault, but may have been caused by a spark from the builder’s angle grinder.
The building firm claims it did not use a grinder on the day of the fire or near where it broke out. Mr Rogerson opened the golf course with his father, Michael, in 1973 on what was the family farm. He handed over its daily running to his daughter Louisa and son- in- law Johnny Porter seven years ago.
No one was hurt in the fire, but it caused huge disruption including for couples due to be married.
Neither Mr Rogerson or Mr Porter wanted to comment on the legal action yesterday.
Mr Szajna’s lawyers declined to comment.
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