Wildfire in 2017
On the 17/18 of June 2017 a large wild fire in Central Portugal destroyed 13 of the 15 chalets and all infrastructures in the tourist project in development at the shore of the Albufeira Castelo de Bode – the Almegue project – located in Almegue, Cernache do Bonjardim, Conselho of Serta.
Only for 5 destroyed chalets (restored by the Santarem court in 2015), Transes International SA was keeping valid insurance contracts issued by Fidelidade, for the owner, with only a total insured value of 726.336,29 Euro, based on prices of 1998 . that is:
ME 5 5043178, starting date 21/07/1998 – lote 35, with insured value of 118.669.01
ME 5 5043180, starting date 27/07/1998 – lote 58, with insured value of 168.957,81
ME 5 5043179, starting date 27/07/1998 – lote 36, with insured value of 109,300.00
ME 5 5046462, starting date 12/05/1999 – lote 55, with insured value of 204,710,00
ME 5 5044647, starting date 06/22/1998 – lote 52, with insured value of 126.699,47
For the other houses the insurance contracts were not restored by the court in Santarem in 2015/2016; all resulting from the conspiracy of 2001-2003.
New illegal Obstructions to delay the damage payments
After having finally restored the insurance contracts in February 2018 (after the wildfire) , Fidelidade started to obstruct the damage evaluation procedure in accordance with the General Conditions of the insurance contracts, as e.g. no expert evaluation of the damages was ever made, no communication despite of various letters send by Transes International, and up to now delaying the payment of the by the wildfire caused financial damage.
Own reconstruction budget needed!
As no expert evaluation of the financial damage was made by Fidelidade in violation with the General conditions, Transes International requested a reconstruction offer for the 5 chalets from Casema, a Portuguese company specialized in high quality construction of wooden houses.
It resulted in a cost budget needed for the reconstruction of the 5 chalets for the year 2018/2019 of 1,291,008.= Euro; the amount that should have been the new insured capital value of the 5 restored insurance contracts, but refused by Fidelidade.
All what has happened so far are serious violations of the insurance contracts and its General conditions, apart from the overwhelming proof of ma-fe committed by Fidelidade and its lawyers.
A First court case in 2018 in Breda to get the damage payment.
Trying to avoid a lengthy court case in Portugal a first summary court case (Kort Geding) started in the second half of 2018 in the court of Breda, the Netherlands with a claim of about 1.2 million Euro.
Unfortunately, the Dutch court declared itself, at the end of December 2018, not being competent to hear the case and directed the case to the court in Portugal.
Introduction of fake damage claims by Fidelidade
Partly because of the confusion made by the Fidelidade lawyers – suddenly introducing fake other competing insurance claims -, and partly as Fidelidade suddenly relied in this legal process (only) on article 39 of the general conditions of 2002, stating that all disputes should be solved by arbitrage; a double surprise.
Only in that legal process in the court of Breda van Es/ Transes International heard for the first time from the lawyers of Fidelidade the reason for not paying the financial damage so far:
“Fidelidade wants to pay the damage but does not know to whom”
A false question !
Before a new process could be started in Portugal, Fidelidade started one month later, in the beginning of 2019, its own (fake) special court case in the court of Castelo Branco (branch of the court in Serta).
With an additional surprise as suddenly the arbitrage clause of the General conditions used to stop the court case in Breda, the Netherlands, was not valid any longer for Fidelidade and its lawyers.