PARIS (Reuters) - The Total group and three other natural and legal persons were sentenced to fines and a total of 192 million euros in reparations for "maritime pollution" during the sinking of the oil tanker Erika that occurred off the coast of Brittany in 1999.
After eight years of proceedings and four months of trial last summer, the Paris Criminal Court also recognizes the right of nature protection associations to obtain compensation for damage to the environment, a victory close to the recognition of the "ecological damage", she asked.
This right to compensation is however explicitly reserved by the court for associations. Municipalities, departments and regions are always limited to the sole right to have their own damage compensated.
Among the hundred civil parties - regions, departments, municipalities, French state, associations - the state alone obtains 153,8 million euros.
The civil parties demanded a total of around one billion euros in reparations.
This judgment marks a breakthrough in French case law on maritime transport because it is the first time that the liability of an oil company has been recognized in a major pollution case.
The judges believe that the group was not legally the charterer of the Erika. He is doomed because he exercised de facto control over the condition of the ship, they say.
The transport sector of Total, which is legally the charterer of the Erika, is released.
The service in charge of "vetting" (inspection of ships before charter, carried out by Total) was legally attached to the Total SA group, the court noted. So he took on a de facto control mission, he said.
The 24-year-old Maltese-flagged Erika broke in two on December 12, 1999 in a storm before sinking and spilling 20.000 tonnes of fuel over 400 km of coastline, killing tens of thousands of birds and ravaging marine flora and fauna.
The first French company in importance and the fourth largest private oil group in the world, Total SA is sentenced to a fine of 375.000 euros in criminal matters, the maximum penalty provided for marine pollution for a legal person.
PROBABLE CALL
On the other hand, the court acquits the company on the other count of "complicity in endangering others". Another legal entity, the world-renowned Italian maritime control body Rina, is fined 175.000 euros.
Giuseppe Savarese, ex-Italian owner of the ship, and Antonio Pollara, ex-manager of the Erika, are fined 75.000 each. The Indian captain of the tanker, Karun Mathur, absent from the trial and under arrest warrant, is released.
Also released are the two subsidiaries of Total, Total Petroleum Services and Total transport, as well as Gianpiero Ponasso, Rina executive, Bertrand Thouillin, former Total security manager, Alessandro Ducci and Mauro Clemente, two Italians who sub-chartered the company. 'Erika to Total on her last trip.
Also cleared by the court are three soldiers (including Admiral Michel de Fresse de Monval) and a civilian employee of the maritime prefecture of Brest, indicted for alleged negligence in the organization of relief.
Total, who claims to be totally innocent, as well as the other convicts who have all pleaded for acquittal at the trial, should appeal the judgment, which will suspend the sanctions. Another trial should therefore be organized in about a year in Paris.
The civil parties claimed a total of around one billion euros, including 153 million for the state.
source: Yahoo news
Exxon, in the USA country of liberalism I remind you for info, had been condemned for the sinking of the Valdez at $ 6 million at the time !!!
I have a small question, maybe stupid, what does GISME mean under certain nicknames?
