A Brazilian concert pianist won nearly 50,000 pounds in damages on Monday from a company that failed to damp-proof the basement of his London home sufficiently to protect his valuable Steinway grand piano.
Jean Louis Steuerman realized the first damp course had failed when water began coming through the floor, and hastily moved the Model C Steinway grand to his mother-in-law's home nearby.
After a second damp course by the company also failed, Steuerman had to pay another contractor to install what lawyers called a“Rolls-Royce damp-proofing system”at his home in the wealthy suburb of Hampstead.
As well as the cost of the damp-proofing, the judge at London's High Court awarded Steuerman related expenses including 19,000 pounds in rent for his mother-in-law's flat, even though he had not paid any rent so far.
Judge Peter Bowsher QC said:“It was vital for Mr. Steuerman to have somewhere to go nearby to practice in peace and to store his scores and other reference works. The cost of renting property in that area is high and no one has suggested that the sum is excessive for the area.”
Steuerman, who was making his first foraysintosBritain's legal system, told Reuters he was delighted with the result.“The world is not so bad as it seems sometimes,”he said.
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