The Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo (TJ-SP) upheld a decision that exempted the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) from paying moral damages to the owner of a property affected by the plane crash that killed the then candidate for President of the Republic, Eduardo Campos, and 6 other people, in 2014.
In the decision, the TJ-SP confirmed the condemnation of the company responsible for the aircraft to pay R$20,000 in moral damages to the owner of the affected property.
For the judges of the 7th Chamber of Private Law, the PSB was just a user of the aircraft.
The plane with Eduardo Campos and the other passengers crashed in a residential neighborhood in the city of Santos, on the coast of São Paulo, hitting the plaintiff’s property and 12 other properties.
In the process, the author requested that the PSB also be condemned for the damages together with the company responsible for the aircraft.
The initial petition highlights that the aircraft was used exclusively for Eduardo Campos’ presidential campaign commitments. For the author of the action, exclusive use would make the PSB responsible for the damages.
The property owner also requested the recognition of lost profits, since, according to him, the property was unable to be rented due to the structural damage caused by the aircraft crash.
Judgment
The company AF Andrade, owner of the aircraft, claimed that it could not be held responsible for the damage because the aircraft had been transferred to a third party before the accident.
PSB’s defense claimed that it was just a mere user of the service and did not exercise direct control or operation over the aircraft.
When reporting the case, judge Fernando Reverend Vidal Akaoui agreed with the PSB’s argument.
“The use of the aircraft in the service of the Brazilian Socialist Party, even if reiterated, does not distort the association as a simple user and, therefore, excluded from the list of those entitled to respond for surface damage”, said the judge.
“This is not about leaving those responsible for the damage unpunished, but rather limiting responsibility to those who are effectively entitled to it within a scenario of legality, fair process and, above all, legal predictability, a vector that is born to the Democratic Rule of Law”, said the rapporteur in another part of the vote.
The rapporteur also rejected the claim for compensation for lost profits, claiming that the author did not prove the use of the property for rental purposes.
The accident
The plane crash that killed the former governor of Pernambuco, Eduardo Campos, and 6 other people happened on August 13, 2014. The aircraft, model Cessna 560XL, registration PR-AFA, took off from Santos Dumont Airport, in Rio de Janeiro , bound for Guarujá/SP airport.
Due to the lack of visibility caused by bad weather, the pilot banked the plane as he was preparing to land. Subsequently, air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft.
