A former Okanagan mayor wants you to know that he is not behind a claim against retail giant Wal-Mart.
On Friday, a Canadian Press story said Gyula Kiss was launching a lawsuit against Wal-Mart for selling him a heater that he supposedly claimed had sparked a fire that burned down his house.
But on Saturday, Kiss tells CHBC News that is far from the real story.
Kiss says that he did not know that he was suing Wal-Mart until he watched CHBC News the night prior.
“Basically I was pissed off, to use the appropriate term.”
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In January 2011, the current Coldstream councilor and former mayor escaped a fire that destroyed his house. Kiss had insurance and almost two years later, he is back in an identical house in the same property on Kidston Road.
But the cause of the blaze remains a mystery to him.
“I have never seen what the cause of the fire was,” he said.
A civil claim registered in the Supreme Court of B.C. under Kiss’s name says a heater made by Fusion Canada and purchased at Wal-Mart is responsible for the fire.
But Kiss did not file the papers, it was his insurance company. He had not even seen them until CHBC News provided him with a copy obtained online.
The lawyer on the claim refused our request for an interview to clarify the situation. He says that when an insurance company pays out an individual on a claim, the company then subrogates the claim, meaning it tries to recover the expenses from the party that they believe to be responsible for the loss.
In Kiss’s case, they are pointing the finger at an electrical heater. The claim cites negligence on the part of Fusion Canada, the manufacturer, and Wal-Mart, the distributor.
The lawyer adds these types of claims are normally made in the insurer’s name rather than the insurance company. It is something Kiss wishes he had known before the media.
“If they let me know about it so I wouldn’t be blindsided, it would be a little easier,” he said.
He has now found himself with unwanted attention and even posted to his blog, http://www.coldstreamernews.blogspot.ca, to clarify the situation. But for now, all Kiss wants to do is clear his name.
“I would be satisfied,” he told CHBC News.
The allegations made on his behalf have not been proven in court. Calls to Wal-Mart Canada and Fusion Canada were not immediately returned.
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