To facilitate the prevention of the overheating of a lid-locking device or the control at the time of a failure by enabling the inexpensive and easy detection of a short-circuit failure of a lid lock driving means; and to increase safety and reliability for a laundry appliance such as a washing machine which washes and dehydrates clothes, or a washing-drying machine which performs from washing to drying.

A rotary tub which washes, dehydrates or dries clothes is covered with a lid. A lid-locking device 9 is driven by the lid lock-driving means 10, and the lid is locked by the lid-locking device 9 while the rotary tub is rotating, and the lid-locking device 9 is controlled by a controlling means 7. The controlling means 7 detects a short-circuit abnormality of the lid lock- driving means 10 by a short-circuit detecting means 11 which detects a short- circuit abnormality of the lid lock-driving means 10 when the driving of the lid lock driving means 10 is stopped.