A woman alleged to have had illegal tobacco in her house has failed to secure an urgent civil trial to prove her insurer’s liability after fire severely damaged the home.

The applicant sought separate trials on liability and the amount of loss, an SA District Court was told.

The 59-year-old argued she could not afford reports to prove the scale of the loss, and if liability was proved first, she could get an advance to fund them.

Insurance Australia Ltd argued financial restraint was not a proper basis for separate trials and her credibility was central to any finding on either liability or loss. It had denied the claim and disputed the amount sought. 

The home at Salisbury in Adelaide’s north was insured for $776,575 when it burnt in September 2024.

IAL hired an independent investigator after receiving fire service reports.  

When the owner was interviewed, it was reported she had been heating a block of tobacco – which she knew was an illegal product – in a microwave kept in her car port. 

The microwave caught fire and the flames spread to the house.

Police allegedly found a commercial quantity of illegal tobacco and cigarettes. Officers seized these and $28,000 in cash.

The insurer denied the claim based on a clause relating to involvement in illegal activity, and drugs or illegal substances on-site. It said the cause of the fire had not been determined.

Judge Jo-Anne Deuter says the general rule is that all issues in a dispute should be dealt with in a single trial, and the claimant has not established a trial on liability alone would give a quicker and cheaper resolution to the legal proceedings.

She says it is impossible to conduct any part of the trial until all police documents have been released and a decision made on prosecution.

The fire occurred in unusual circumstances and any police prosecution would concern the amount of tobacco and cigarette products, and what caused the fire.

Read the judgment here.