The facts date back to April 23, 2014, when four students from the University of Minho went to a wall, which presented “Severe signs of poor condition”. The structure eventually crumbled, killing three students who were at the base.
Braga’s administrative and tax court set the value of the compensation to pay to the parents of each of the three students who died in that city crushed by a wall in 2014.
By judgment of 18 June, to which Lusa had access this Thursday and which arises more than a year after the trial began, the court determined that the compensation be paid by the condominium administrator responsible for the construction, without a Chamber licensing, of that wall, to host the mailboxes of a building.
Payment will be secured by the condominium and their insurers. The Braga Chamber, which was also defendant in the case, was acquitted.
The wall in question was a structure that, since 1996, had welcomed the mailboxes of an existing building there, but, in 2012, was no longer useful, after the condominium administration put the mailboxes inside the building.
This, refers to the sentence, “without repairing the structure [muro]neither has it proceeded to removal and not even signaled it with a sign of interdiction/danger. “
“Severe signs of poor condition” since 2010
According to the court, the structure had, at least since 2010, “serious signs of poor condition and a marked risk/danger of falling for the ride”.
The court also proved that, in 2010, the condominium administration had been alerted by the CTT supervisor and by the zone postman for the state of degradation in which the wall was.
The condominium administrator warned, in these same year, the Braga Chamber for the risk of falling that wall, appealing to the taking of measures for urgent reparation.
The House, in turn, responded to the condominium to intervene to ensure the safety of the structure, but nothing was done.
However, the physical process related to this case has disappeared from the chamber archives, thus being known the content of subsequent contacts maintained with the condominium.
How it all happened
The facts date back to April 23, 2014, when, to celebrate a victory in a “course war”, as part of a usual action, four students from the University of Minho went to the wall, near the Academy, in Braga.
The wall eventually crumbled, killing three students who were at the base, also celebrating.
In the criminal case, the four students who jumped on the wall, accused of negligent homicide, were at trial, but the court eventually acquitted them.
For the court, and contrary to the prosecution’s accusation, it was not proved that the wall had “notorious and easily perceive” cracks and inclination.
Therefore, the court added, the defendants could not predict that the climb to the wall could trigger their fall.
Parents requested compensation of 150 thousand euros for each death
Parents subsequently filed a civil action against the condominium and against the Braga Chamber, requesting compensation of 150 thousand euros for each death.
They claimed that both defendants would be aware of the risk of the structure, but they did nothing to prevent access to the site.
The Court, in the judgment, states that the responsibility of the installation of postal receptions is the owners of the buildings and not of the Municipality, having this “no regulatory or legal obligations” in relation to them.
Also considers that “doubts do not subsist that if the defendant [condomínio] had performed the necessary acts of conservation, the structure would not be presented in the state of degradation in which it was. “
Therefore, and moving the blame of the students who were jumping on the wall, the court considers that the condominium acted “with serious guilt, equivalent to gross negligence”, in the illicit default of the duties of conservation of the wall.
Each victim’s parents will receive 100,000 euros as a death damage, 10,000 euros as non -heritage damage suffered by the victims and 40,000 euros for non -heritage damage suffered by the parents themselves.
