Civil Court has ruled that compensation for brand-new motorcycles cannot be awarded to owners whose vehicles were destroyed in a warehouse fire, even though the blaze was caused by negligence.

In a judgment delivered yesterday, Judge Aishath Azfa Abdul Ghafoor found that Green Path Pvt Ltd — which operated the chemical warehouse in H. Thilafusheege that caught fire five years ago had breached its duty of care.

The case was filed in January 2022 by two individuals whose motorcycles, parked near the warehouse, were destroyed in what has been described as one of Malé’s worst fires. The High Court had also previously upheld findings that the motorcycles were damaged in the incident.

Green Path argued that the cause of the fire remained under police investigation and that negligence had not been conclusively established. The company said compensation could not be claimed without proof that the damage resulted from a breach of its legal duty.

The court, however, held that the company had failed to take adequate safety measures and that the fire was the result of its negligence.

Despite this finding, the court rejected the plaintiffs’ claims for the cost of new motorcycles; MVR 54,000 in one case and MVR 55,750 in the other.

The judge said compensation must aim to restore a loss to its original position, not improve it. Awarding the cost of new motorcycles in place of five-year-old vehicles would amount to unjust enrichment, the judgement said.

The court also noted that the plaintiffs had failed to claim compensation based on the depreciated value of the motorcycles, which is the appropriate standard in such cases.

“The court must decide on the issue before it and has no discretion to provide an alternative remedy,” the judgment said, citing earlier Supreme Court guidance.

However, Green Path was ordered to pay MVR 15,000 in legal fees to each of the plaintiffs.