Smoke Fire in your Home 7 Things to Clean and Breathe
Have you ever had a smoke fire in your home? Was it caused by your furnace? Was it caused from another problem? Did you have an immense cleanup at the time? Did you have to vacate your home? Did you have your homeowners insurance company put on boxing gloves and go rounds? If the answer to this question is yes or no, read on.
After your smoke fire you must vacate your home. If you are lucky your homeowners insurance will come through and pay for your food and lodging while your home is recovering.
The down side of this is most insurance companies expect you to pay for your food and housing, keep the receipts and will then reimburse you.
What if you do not have a charge card? What if you are not working and do not have an income? Now what do you do? You can’t stay in your home it is unsafe to breathe the air. Another option is to stay with relatives and friends which can become quite a hassle. If you stay in a hotel picture you and your family all jammed into one room without a kitchen. There is absolutely nothing like your own home.
I AM GOING TO LIST THE FOLLOWING STEPS THAT NEED TO BE TAKEN WHEN YOU HAVE SMOKE DAMAGE IN YOUR HOME:
(1) You need to thoroughly clean your:
(a) carpets
(b) drapes
(c) clothing
(d) bedding
(e) Appliances
(f) Floors
(g) pictures
(h) knick knacks
(2) The walls will need to be thoroughly washed and in some cases painted.
IF YOU ARE STILL SENSITIVE TO THE AIR QUALITY OF YOUR HOME AND EXPERIENCE:
(a) Dizziness
(b) Light Headed
(c) Nauseous
(d) Weak arms and legs
(e) Elevated Blood Pressure
INTENSE CLEANING OF YOUR HOME:
(3) If you have a cottage cheese ceiling - it will have to be stripped to make the ceiling smooth to be able to clean or paint.
(4) If the carpeting still smells of smoke after steam cleaning - it will need to be removed and replaced.
(5) The heating and air conditioning ducts will have to be cleaned or replaced. If they are lined with asbestos – the asbestos will have to be removed by toxic specialists.
(6) Replace all your furniture.
(7) Remove anything and everything that can possible to be trashed.
Smoke is air born and sticks to every surface of your home. The cleaning is essential either by you or a designated cleaning service that specializes in smoke damage.
This is a new beginning for you and your new home. This is a long, expensive undertaking. You will be stressed to the max. Stand up to your home owners insurance company. Ask what have I been paying for all these years? In the end you will be back into your own home. Enjoy it.
Thank you for reading my article. Please feel free to read any of my other numerous articles on various subjects.
Copyright Linda E. Meckler 2007
Linda is the author of her first published book, “Ghost Kids Trilogy. “Christy, 12 and her Brother Brad, 16 moves into an old house on top of a mountain and meet two Ghost Kids.
Then we have a mysterious, magical Blue Vase where Uncle Charlie the villain is trapped. He wants out of the Blue Vase and exchange he will tell Christy and Brad where Pirates’ Treasure is Hidden.
Take a walk with Christy and Brad down a dark hall hunting for Pirates” Treasure. You will think were you there right there with them.
Protect Yourself From Contractor Fraud - Truth About Websites That Advertise Contractor Prescreening
Today’s lifestyles demand making the most of every minute of the day. Cell phones, fast food, and Internet banking have become commonplace in almost every household.
Not surprisingly, Internet dating and matchmaking web sites have become phenomenally popular as well. Last month alone, over 3 million dating/matchmaking searches were done by people seeking Mr. or Mrs. Right. Online Dating Magazine estimates Internet dating results in more than 120,000 marriages annually.
Another kind of Internet matchmaking service has also become highly popular. One for homeowners on a quest to find reputable contractors for remodeling, renovation, home repair, and new construction purposes.
As with any other resource, some are more dependable than others. In response to fierce competition, and enticement to attract more consumers, a growing number of service providers advertise prescreened contractors.
But does prescreening offer the consumer protection, or create risk hazards? What pitfalls might be involved when consumers fail to follow up with a screening process of their own?
Matchmaking Services with Prescreened Service Providers; Beware of Risks Involved
This popular contractor matching service maintains an extensive database of prescreened contractors.”
“Our free contractor referral service provides verified US insured and licensed contractors.”
“We prescreen all contractors before we choose to partner with them…a contractor must provide proof of insurance and licensing…and must also submit a solid list of previous customer references.”
Such are the assertions made by 3 different consumer-to-contractor matchmaking services that prescreen member service providers.
Sounds good; until one begins considering possible drawbacks. Or what dangers could be lurking behind such carefully worded sales pitches.
The first area of concern is that consumers can be lulled into a false sense of security by this type matchmaking service. Putting them at risk for hiring a contractor based upon old, outdated information.
Contractor proof of insurance, licensing, and other credentials that checked out even just a few short weeks prior could no longer be valid. And references offered at the time of membership, obsolete and no longer reflective of the contractor’s workmanship. In addition, any number of personal problems or health complications might have arisen that could affect the work quality or integrity of services.
The second area of concern is the screening process itself:
• how extensive is it
• “who” implements it
• what resources are used
Each of these aspects directly affect whether or not information gleaned is truly a reliable gauge as to the contractor’s professionalism, credibility, and reliability as a service provider – even at the time of membership.
Combine these concerns with the fact consumer-to-contractor prescreening service providers offer no written guarantee that contractor members will perform as expected. Or that licensing, insurance coverage and good standing as a service provider are still in tact at the time of hiring.
Contractor Fraud on the Rise
As the construction industry continues to boom across the United States and Canada, so do scam artists. A growing number of fraudulent contractors obtain huge sums of money upfront from unsuspecting business and homeowners. And then disappear before work is completed, or even begun.
Cases in point:
• Canada’s Alberta Government Services (AGS) issued a warning to residents after an Edmonton-based home renovator began bilking consumers out of huge sums of money.
• In a separate investigation, residents – especially senior citizens – were warned against roofing contractors that took large advance deposits, and then failed to complete work as promised.
• Arrest warrants were issued for a paving and sealing contractor on a variety of charges; including unfair business practices, direct selling without a license, and the use of unsuitable materials.
• Another Canadian service provider swindled more than $500,000 from four elderly women.
Americans face a similar trend. Corrupt construction companies cheat the federal government out of billions of taxpayer’s dollars annually. And, the post-Katrina massive market for new construction and home repair wrought an influx of contractor fraud to New Orleans. Bilked by contractors for millions of dollars, the most common fraud tactic consumers fell for was the request for too much money upfront.
As a result, social media editor for the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Deon Roberts, posted a report April 10, 2007 that stated the department had been flooded with queries by consumers researching homebuilder and contractor reputations. The BBB received 17,701 inquiries for roofing contractors; up from 4,967 the year before.
Construction and remodeling inquiries went from 3,728 to 12,802, and general contractor inquiries – up 16,208 from 3,547. A good sign that consumers are beginning to take the initiative to check out contractors before hiring, according to New Orleans BBB spokeswoman, Cynthia Albert.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) cites a statement made by Transparency International. They report that “Nowhere is corruption more ingrained than in the construction sector.”
As a result, the Transparency task committee compiled a formal “code of ethics” that includes such guidelines as “engineers shall adopt a zero-tolerance approach for bribery, fraud, deception, and corruption in any design or construction work in which they are engaged.”
Until things change and the tide turns, however, it is up to the consumer to make careful contractor selection; to avoid becoming a part of the growing number of construction fraud casualties.
Avoid Becoming a Statistic
Consumers risk paying a high cost for failure to critique service providers when it comes to new construction and home renovation. Fraudulent activity from crooked contractors costs consumers hundreds of millions of dollars annually; whether from Workers’ Compensation fraud, code violations, poor workmanship, or projects abandoned before completion.
Homeowners digesting this information should be alarmed. And should exercise the same caution and credential verification when using prescreened contractor matchmaking services, as when using any other consumer-to-contractor service provider.
Ensure the Contractor You Hire is Legitimate
When all is said and done, there are no shortcuts. What makes more sense than putting blind trust in someone else to prescreen the contractor, is locating a consumer-to-contractor service provider that teaches you how to protect yourself by evaluating the contractor. And then helps guide you through the selection process to make a more informed decision:
• What to look for / what to avoid in a contractor
• Questions to ask
• How to interview
• How to check out references
• Resources to use in determining whether or not the contractor is reputable
As well as other useful information; such as obtaining quotes, formulating project plans, creating a materials list, what to include in the contract, how to handle consumer/contractor disagreements, and convenient copy-ready forms.
Make an Educated Hiring Decision
Project-owner-to-contractor services such as HandyAmerican.com and HandyCanadian.com offers consumers these type services, free of charge. Unique instructional articles that educate the consumer. Equipping them with the information required to make a better hiring decision; reducing risks, and helping to pave the way to project success.
Founder Max Sheppard urges consumers to protect themselves by qualifying a contractor before making a commitment.
“Check with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation at a state or provincial level, if the contractor is certified, to see whether or not they are reputable. Or, if the contractor is registered, the local growth management department. Also check to ensure insurance and/or Workmen’s’ Compensation information is accurate.
“Request references from recently completed projects – not old, and take the time to check them out, as well. Also, discover whether or not the contractor has had grievances lodged against them by checking with the Better Business Bureau,” advises Sheppard.
Why? Because the bottom line is the responsibility to critique and select a qualified contractor rests on the shoulders of the person doing the hiring. The consumer and not the matchmaking service. Protect yourself; it only makes good sense.
Note: HandyCanadian.com, Handy American.com, and similar service providers can be found by doing a “project owner to contractor services” search online.
An Introduction to Thermal Imaging for Home Owners & Realtors
Thermographers can help homeowners save thousands of dollars by finding hidden defects behind the walls, ceilings and floors of their homes.
A Thermographer uses an infrared thermal imaging camera, technology that was developed for the military. The camera acts like an “X-Ray” machine searching behind the building surfaces for problems. In reality it does not “see” into anything but rather detects the transfer of heat through materials.
It is the difference in surface temperature that reveals problems. Thermal patterns, or anomalies, can indicate water damage (mold), missing insulation, energy loss, electrical and duct work problems.
Another important service provided for homeowners and Realtors are Home Warranty inspections. A Thermal scan can find building defects that are not visible to the naked eye. Home builders are responsible to correct latent defects in their homes for many years, much longer than the standard new home warranty! Most homeowners are unaware the homes builder is obligated for this length of time.
High end homes, as well as commercial buildings, are increasingly being scanned for insurance underwriting purposes. A Thermal scan can find potential problems with electrical services, building equipment and appliances as well as the building envelope itself.
There are three major reasons Thermal scans are so useful in building applications.
1. They are NON-contact/NON-destructive - that is, the process is completely hands off, there is no damage to the building or its components.
2. Thermal scans are two dimensional - we capture an image, we can measure and compare areas of the object and pinpoint problem areas. We capture thermal photographs and even video for analysis.
3. Thermal scans are real time - this allows very fast scanning of stationary and even moving objects, with instant analysis of the thermal patterns. A modern Infrared Camera in the hands of a Trained Certified Thermographer can save homeowners thousands of dollars, find water problems, energy loss areas, overheated equipment and warranty issues.
Get Style and Strength in Your Hurricane Shutters
Hurricanes are becoming more and more prevalent and powerful, and with all the destruction that has taken place in the past, insurance companies are starting to refuse insurance to people who live in the areas that most need that insurance.
The only solution is to protect your home as best you can yourself.
Hurricane-Proof Windows
If you live in an area that is frequently hit by hurricanes or windstorms, it is probably the law that you have hurricane-proof windows. However, even these (windows with plastic panes, shatter-proof glass or glass with protective membranes) can use all the help they can get. In a hurricane the strength of your windows is the difference between your house surviving with minimum damage, or with a missing roof. If a window breaks because of battering by strong winds, those winds rush into the house like a freight train, air pressure inside the building increases, and that’s what helps cause the roof to be ripped off.
So don’t be stingy. Get the best hurricane shutters you can.
As with any other household item on the market, there are quite a lot of choices to choose from. You can purchase removable shutters - but shutters are heavy and you will have to have the strength to remove them and a safe place to store them. Other shutters are affixed permanently to the house. Even though these shutters are a necessity, there is no reason why they cannot also look attractive until they have to be put to use.
Save time and money by surfing around the internet and comparing prices and features. Then visit your local home improvement and home decor stores and discussing your needs with the people there, so you can make an informed decision.
Hurricane Depot carries hurricane storm panels for your windows, but also braces for your garage door. Don’t neglect that important part of your home, by the way!
Storm Shutters is another online company that carries hurricane shutters, as well as other kinds of storm shutters for those of you who live in areas subject to tornadoes or violent windstorms.
Aluminum or steel too heavy? A company called Wayne Dalton provides Fabric-Shield storm panels! There are PVC coated woven fabric panels - tested to block rain, wind, and storm-driven projectiles.
1. Hurricane Storm Panels
These panels are the most inexpensive system you can purchase. The panels are made of aluminum or steel, and are removable for easy storage. (If you are going to store them, however, make sure that you are strong enough to put them back on their tracks should you need to. And make sure that all the hardware you need to replace the panels, stays with them.)
2. Roll Down Hurricane Shutter
Roll down shutters are attached to the top of your window, and are lowered through the use of an electric motor. Should your power go out, they can also be lowered by the use of a hand crank. These shutters will protect you not only from a hurricanes, but from home intruders as well. However, because they are automatic, they are expensive.
3. Accordion-Type Hurricane Shutter
Accordion shutters, which as the name implies fold and unfold like an accordion, are also relatively inexpensive, but there are maintenance issues you need to be aware of. It is very important that the glide wheels on which they roll be well-maintained, and the last thing you want to do is find out that you can’t shut them when you really, really need to.
These types of shutters are used to enclose your entire porch or veranda, and would not be used for single windows.
4. Bahama-style Hurricane Shutter
The Bahama-style shutter is actually an awning. It’s a single-piece shutter attached above the window. It only opens a little way, which allows in the air but not a lot of sunlight. During a storm you lower the shutter completely and lock it down.
5. Colonial Hurricane Shutter
Colonial hurricane shutters always come in pairs. These are the most decorative of shutters, made of aluminum or steel. (Don’t buy any that use styrofoam filler or sheet metal parts. These would be too weak to stand up to a real storm..
Home Insurance - Give Your Home a Winter Health Check
As winter sets in and the weather worsens, one of the issues homeowners will face is ensuring their home is protected from the elements.
With the risk of high winds and winter storms ever apparent throughout the winter season, it’s worth giving your home a winter health check in order to reduce the risk.
Here are a few essential checks - both inside and outside your property - you could carry out in order to prepare for any bad weather:
* Check the condition of your roof, checking for cracked or broken tiles and any chimney damage. If any repairs are needed, hire a professional roofing contractor as soon as possible to ensure your home is protected against the elements.
* Clear gutters and drain pipes of debris and leaf litter in order to reduce the risk of blockages and overflows.
* If you use a fireplace in your home, be sure to check any chimney flues for blockages - such as leaves and birds nests - debris can become a health risk when the fire is lit if left unattended, if you’re not sure contact a qualified chimney sweep in your area.
* Trim back any low hanging branches to reduce the risk of damage in high winds
* Ensure you have your boiler serviced by a CORGI registered professional at least once a year, as well as checking your central heating and gas fire to ensure they are working efficiently.
* During cold weather, keep the central heating set to at least 10 degrees in order to prevent pipes from freezing
* Check that the loft is properly insulated and has adequate ventilation
* Thicker curtains can help reduce heat loss in the home
With an increasing number of weather-related claims over the last few years, getting the right home insurance deal could make a real difference if your property should sustain weather-related damage.
Colder weather means we rely on a variety of sources to help keep us warm and cosy inside, from central heating to candles. According to research carried out by a leading home insurance provider, it is estimated that nearly half the adult population of the UK will use some other form of heating appliance -such as electric blankets and additional heaters - in their bedrooms in order to help keep warm during the winter.
However it is important to be careful when using these extra appliances, here are a few tips for avoiding that phone call to your house insurance provider:
* Ensure that candles are placed on a suitable heat-proof surface away from curtains and not placed under shelves or on top of television sets.
* Don’t leave candles to burn unattended.
* Ensure any electric blankets are in good condition and working properly, only use overnight if they have a specially-designed thermostat.
Let’s do lunch
BMP DDB remains busy with election work. It has put together a film for the Ministry of Sound nightclub urging young people to exercise their votes, as described in the Creative Impulse feature opposite. Tory campaigners will be interested to note that BMP DDB is also acting for the Labour Party. Plenty of work for now, then, but will the Paddington shop have anything much to do when the election is over?
Possibly the tiniest agency in the world has been appointed to act for insurer Direct Line. Mortimer Whittaker O’Sullivan, an off-shoot of the GGT Group, which can only be seen under a microscope, snaffled the pounds 13m “red phone on wheels” account from under the nose of incumbent agency, multinational giant TBWA.
At J Walter Thompson, anything is possible. The Berkeley Square agency, hitherto stereotyped by chippy outsiders as the natural home of Oxbridge bluebloods, has taken steps to prove itself an absolute meritocracy. A certain Mr Colebrook, originally employed in the post room, was last week appointed International Group President of JWT Worldwide. But outsiders remain unconvinced. MrColebrook’s first name is Miles. Amid all the excitement (surely not - Ed) generated by the Liberal Democrat conference last month, one sad tale passed almost unnoticed. The party’s ad agency, Knight Leach Delaney, was forced into voluntary liquidation by bad debts. All 20 staff were made redundant, but managing director Stuart Leach, with five colleagues, found a home at little-known through- the-line agency Rapier Stead and Bowden. According to Campaign, Leach will continue to work with the Lib Dem campaign team. Until now, media buyers have placed little faith in the grand claims made by Internet companies, which say their sites are visited by several million anoraks each week. Without proof, why should anybody pay for an ad site? Now, however, the Audit Bureau of Circulations is close to agreeing an international standard for monitoring Internet sites. The first certificates should be available within the next eight weeks. Pepsi has officially denied planning to turn Santa Claus blue. The cola drink, which launched “project blue” earlier this year, with a change of livery for its Diet, Max and original versions, has promoted itself with posters showing traditionally red objects in blue: a blue ace of hearts, a blue Labour rosette, a blue strawberry. Santa - whose red costume, believe it or not, was first seen in a 1931 ad campaign from Coca-Cola - appeared a prize target, if perhaps a little beyond even this drink giant’s marketing budget. Walsh Trott Chick Smith must be doing something wrong. First, it landed the account for Labatts - shortly before the brewer was purchased by Whitbread and the advertising moved to Whitbread agencies BBII and Lowe Howard-Spink. Then Walsh Trott was appointed to work on the Daily Express, whose editor, unfortunately, was subsequently removed. The account is now up for pitch once more. Is this agency cursed? ALEX SOMERSET
Sunset over the Boulevard
Betsy Blair was born Elizabeth Boger in 1923 into a middle-class episcopalian family in New Jersey, her mother a teacher, her father an insurance broker. By the age of 12, this prodigiously confident child performer was dancing before Eleanor Roosevelt in Washington. At the age of 16 she came to audition at Billy Rose’s Manhattan nightclub, the Diamond Horseshoe and, as in a Hollywood musical, she mistook the resident choreographer for a waiter. He was Gene Kelly, 12 years her senior, of whom she says in her attractive and evocative biography, ‘He gave me - and the world - an unforgettable legacy of joy.’ When they married two years later and set off for Hollywood, he was a Broadway star under contract to David Selznick, she was an experienced chorus girl with high ambitions as an actress and political views far to the left of her husband’s liberal democratic convictions.
He was an immediate success in the movies, while she bore him a daughter and remained in his shadow though doing some stage work and becoming active in a number of left-wing causes of an admirable kind. Her request to join the Communist party (made just after the second world war) was turned down by the comrades on the grounds that she would be more useful as the wife of a prominent liberal.
Surprisingly this did not alert her to the party’s deviousness. With considerable skill and wonderfully girlish enthusiasm, Blair recreates the Hollywood of the Forties and Fifties when the Kellys were among the cynosures of the movie colony. These were the last days of the big studio system, and also the time when hundreds of naive idealists paid for their brave political hopes by being trampled on during the McCarthyite witch-hunts. The Hollywood Ten were sent to jail for defying the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), many others became victims of an industrial blacklist, quite a number went into exile.
Instead of telling her story chronologically, cross-cutting between themes and events, Blair chooses to pursue a single line over a period of years and double back so that we have three parallel accounts of the early Fifties. One is about accompanying Kelly to Europe where he spent 1952 and ‘53 directing his commercially disastrous experimental dance film Invitation to the Dance in London and appearing in two mediocre movies. Another concerns her experiences on the blacklist, which was briefly set aside when, partly due to Kelly’s firm intervention, she got her most famous role opposite Ernest Borgnine as the plain schoolteacher in Marty. For this she won an award at the 1956 Cannes Festival, received an Oscar nomination, and became world-famous. The third strand is about her personal development, which she compares with Nora’s break-out in A Doll’s House and involved a series of affairs beginning in 1952. She finally confessed these infidelities to an understanding Kelly four years later before leaving him to start a new life. She won’t name any of the lovers because that would make her a stool-pigeon like HUAC’s friendly witnesses: ‘Besides, I never slept with Frank Sinatra or Aly Khan or Laurence Olivier - only with a few nice left-wing men who deserve their anonymity.’ The reader is left to work out how these three independent narratives relate to each other. We wonder, for instance, if Kelly and MGM decided it would be better if he and his politically embarrassing wife got out of America while HUAC was conducting its most vociferous campaign against Hollywood. She doesn’t say this, but then she doesn’t deny it.
Marrying Kelly got Blair out of New Jersey. Divorcing him got her out of America to become ‘an independent woman’, setting up a production company in Paris in 1957 with her French lover, appearing in art-house movies such as Antonioni’s Il Grido, and mixing with Bunuel and Picasso. She recalls Robert Capa being of her expatriate circle then, though as he was killed in 1954 this is one of her occasional memory lapses. This period of freedom and fame came to an end in the 1960s, when she married the British film-maker Karel Reisz, ‘my second and eternal husband’. She first came across him when at a French documentary festival she persuaded her fellow jurors to give his film We Are the Lambeth Bays the top prize, though he wasn’t there to receive it - as nice a case of what Hollywood screenwriters call ‘meeting cute’ as her first encounter with Kelly. Their happy marriage, of which she writes disappointingly little, lasted until his death in 2002. Once again she seems contented to have lived and worked in the shadow of a man she loved and respected.
Time after which offer to settle could not be accepted
An offer to settle made under Part 36 of the Civil Procedure Rules which was available for acceptance afteran appeal hearing had started would not be available for acceptance after the hearing had ended and the court had reserved judgment.
The Court of Appeal refused an application for, inter alia, a declaration that an offer to settle made by the third defendants to the first defendants had still been open for acceptance after the conclusion of the hearing of an appeal.
In a claim for assault the first defendant, the owner of a nightclub, appealed against a decision that it was vicariously liable to the claimant for the actions of a doorman who had been supplied by the second defendant, a security company. The third defendant, the second defendant’s insurer, cross-appealed, inter alia, against the decision that the claimant’s injuries constituted “accidental bodily injury” for the purposes of the public liability insurance cover provided by it to the second defendant.
On 9 November, before the hearing of the appeal and the cross- appeal, the third defendant’s solicitor made a Part 36 offer to settle on the basis, inter alia, that the parties agreed to a 50:50 division of liability. A few days later the first defendant’s solicitor made its own Part 36 offer. On 17 November, the morning of the second day of the appeal hearing, the first defendant’s solicitor made a new offer to the third defendant’s solicitor to the effect that his client would now accept a 40:60 division of liability. The offer was rejected. A letter was faxed by the third defendant’s solicitor to the first defendant’s solicitor that day, saying: We refer to the counter proposal made by you at Court this morning of 60:40 split in liability in your client’s favour. We confirm that this proposal is rejected. It follows, therefore, that the 50:50 split on liability is no longer available.
The hearing of the appeals was concluded and judgment was reserved. On 22 November the first defendant’s solicitor wrote a further letter purporting to accept the offer of 9 November. The third defendant’s solicitor denied that the offer was still open for acceptance on 22 November. The first defendant applied for an order, inter alia, for a declaration that the offer of 9 November had been validly accepted by their letter of 22 November. Derek Sweeting QC (Davies Lavery)for the first defendant’ Patrick Lawrence QC and Alex Glassbrook (Reynolds Porter Chamberlain) for the third defendant.
Lord Justice Brooke said that there had been an explicit withdrawal of the offer on 17 November, so that it was no longer available for acceptance.
If the first defendant, on receipt of the letter of 17 November, had been in any doubt as to its meaning, (and particularly the meaning of the words “it follows that…”) it could have asked for clarification. Alternatively, if it had wished to try and accept the offer before the end of the hearing, it should have asked for a stay of the hearing while it sought permission to accept the offer from a different judge of the court.
Even if, which was doubtful, the third defendant’s offer of 9 November had been available for acceptance after the appeal hearing had started, there was no doubt at all that it carried an implied term that it would not be available for acceptance after the hearing ended and the court reserved judgment.
TUESDAY LAW REPORT
7 FEBRUARY 2006
Hawley v Luminar Leisure plc and others ([2006] EWCA Civ 30)
Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justice Brooke and Lord Justice Maurice Kay) 1 February 2006
Kate O’Hanlon, Barrister
‘Dark Destroyer’ victorious in court bout
Former champion boxer Nigel Benn won the most important fight of his life yesterday when he was cleared of viciously attacking a businessman he had once “loved like a brother”.
The former World Super-Middleweight Champion, who insisted he was “fitted up” over the unprovoked assault in a West End nightclub, could not hide his relief as he was acquitted.
The 33-year-old dreadlocked “Dark Destroyer”, his hands - once insured for pounds 10m - clasped in front of him, swayed slightly then grinned as the crowd of friends and supporters in the packed public gallery at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court shouted “yes!” Benn, wearing a velvet-trimmed three- quarter length, chalk-striped designer jacket, then bowed to the jury and thanked them before leaving the dock at the ernd of the seven-day trial. Within minutes, his ecstatic and tearful fiancee, Caroline, the mother of the couple’s seven-month-old twins, had flung herself into his arms. The couple plan to marry on 26 July. The six men and six women on the jury, who spent six hours considering the evidence, had first unanimously cleared millionaire Benn of wounding self-confessed former drug-dealer “Rolex Ray” Sullivan last September with a glass ashtray, with intent to do him grievous bodily harm. Then, after being told by the judge that he would accept a majority verdict, they retired once more to consider a second a lesser, alternative charge alleging that Benn unlawfully wounded the ticket agency boss in the popular Mayfair night club, Legends. The jurors returned less than 20 minutes later with their second “not guilty” verdict.
KEVIN BROKERS A CHANGE
The nightclub has that morning-after look. The chairs are stacked on tables, the air reeks of stale beer, the strippers have long since left in their mini-cabs. Only a lonely man remains, head in hands, pondering what passes for his future.
It’s a tawdry scene, but Kevin Whately has got used to such seediness. His portrayal of insurance investigator Jimmy Griffin in The Broker’s Man has taken him to some pretty unglamorous locations. “A sewage farm, a couple of brothels. . . oh, and I was swimming round in a gravel pit in Harefield the other day, I seem to remember,” says Kevin. He isn’t joking.
How different from the places in which he found himself during the 12 years he played Inspector Morse’s sidekick, Sergeant Lewis. Think of Morse and you think of golden evenings in the gardens of country pubs with the real ale flowing and the birds singing. Now Kevin is making tea for us both in his make-up caravan which is parked on a housing estate in Slough. You’d think he’d be pining for the gentle countryside of Oxfordshire, but you’d be wrong.
“I know you should never say never, but I don’t think I’ll be appearing as Lewis again,” he says. “Twelve years is a hell of a long time to play the dutiful sergeant. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to him - he established me on television. And I got on very well with John Thaw. It’s just that there’s only so much you can do with a character. When I saw a mickey-take of him on Smith And Jones, I thought, ‘Well that just about wraps it up’.”
For an actor to leave such a successful series takes some doing. They tried everything to keep him. “I suppose you could say they chucked quite a bit of money at me to make me stay,” he says. “But I’d made up my mind.”
He’s more content playing Griffin - who stars alongside Annette Ekblom in the second series which begins on BBC1 next month - even though he has none of Lewis’s certainties.
“His love life’s a mess, he’s sexually frustrated, he muddles along from day to day, but he’s intensely human. He left the police because he has a deep sense of justice and couldn’t accept that so many criminals were getting away with it.”
Kevin knows at first hand how the war between police and villains can become a game of tit for tat. “A mate of mine told me he’d been sent down on a GBH charge some time ago. He said he was completely innocent, but he didn’t blame the police for fitting him up. He’d got away with far worse things in the past, and this time it was his turn. I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing, but it seems this is the way it works sometimes.”
Unbelievably for someone who so personifies middle-class decency, Kevin too has a record. “Not exactly GBH, unless you count GBH of the ear. I was arrested twice for busking on the London Underground. I’d given up my job as an accountant to go to drama school and I was trying to earn some extra money to keep myself. I was charged, went to court and was fined, the first time pounds 1, the second pounds 2. So somewhere in the archives there’s a record of my crimes. ‘Whately, K. Marlborough Street. Guilty’.”
Since he took on the role of the stolid Lewis, the public perception of Kevin has been of a man who plays life with a straight bat. The only blip came four years ago when he was suspected of seeing rather more than he should of his Peak Practice co- star, Amanda Burton. Kevin believes in damage limitation - the only reaction you’ll get out of him now is a rather sheepish grin.
At the age of 47, he’s careful about what he signs up for, astute enough to realise that viewers might not accept his playing an out- and-out monster. “I was offered a part as a paedophile. It was a brilliantly written script and a bit of me wanted to do it. But I knew it would have been a mistake. My wife (actress Madelaine Newton) sorted out my doubts. She said, ‘Would you let the kids see it?’ The answer to that was no, and once I’d decided that, the next question was ‘Why play it?’ ” While his children - Kieran, 13, and Catherine, 14 - were growing up, Kevin had to juggle the demands of work and fatherhood. “Except that you don’t juggle it really, do you? You just sort of muddle through.” He sounds exactly like Griffin - slightly tortured, trying to make the best of things. He wishes he could lighten up more. “Oh yes, I know some people think of me as rather a dull bloke. I’d like to be more outgoing. I was sitting in the bus just now, having my supper and all the other actors were making jokes about strippers and lap dancers. It sounds daft, but I agonise for days about playing a scene like that. You know, whether it’s right for me to be doing it.”
He admits to being inhibited as a child and says a lot of that has stayed with him: “I found it hard to form relationships. I was never really good with people.”
Acting gave him a means of channelling his shyness, of expressing things that otherwise would have remained deep within him. “It was a revelation to me. It took me out of myself. I don’t know how or why it happened, there was no background in the family. My dad was in the Royal Navy and my mother was a teacher. But I can still remember the first time I went on stage, in a school nativity play when I was five. I was the Star of Bethlehem, the narrator, and I had a huge cardboard star stuck to the side of my face. I can still feel the excitement. I remember thinking, ‘I love this’.”