Compensation dispute from 2011 Vitesse crash ongoing
A BATTLE over compensation following the Condor Vitesse collision with a French fishing boat is continuing seven years after the incident.
The captain of Les Marquises died in the incident on 28 March 2011.
Since then, the judicial process has dragged through different French courts.
In the latest twist, the Court of Cassation, one of the courts of last resort in France, has ruled that a Caen Court of Appeal decision in April was wrong not to consider whether there was divided responsibility for what happened.
The case has now been sent to the Rouen Court of Appeal to set the level of compensation again, according to Ouest France.
The fishing boat’s captain, Philippe Lesaulnier, 42, was killed and two crew members saved when their vessel was cut in two by the ferry in fog as it travelled between St Malo and Jersey.
On 2 February 2015, the Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence for Paul Le Romancer, captain of the ferry, of 18 months prison suspended and a five-year professional ban, for homicide and unintentional injuries, which was the original decision of the court of Coutances in September 2013.
It also set a temporary compensation level for Mr Lesaulnier’s family and the two sailors to be paid by the captain and the owner of the Condor Vitesse.
In December 2015, setting the final compensation, the court of Coutances ruled that the Les Marquises was responsible for 25% of the collision.
It set compensation at about 122,000 euros for the Lesaulnier family and 410,000 euros for the Enim [a seamen’s welfare scheme] for pensions.
The Caen Court of Appeal in April 2017 overturned this, ruling the responsibilities were fixed in December 2015 and the captain of the ferry was judged entirely at fault. The court awarded approximately 300,000 euros to the Lesaulnier family, 15,500 euros to the owner of the boat and a total of 10,000 euros to the two sailors.
Mr Le Romancer has argued the fishing boat’s responsibility should be 30%.
