The Court of appeal extends it to most of the complainants

The Court of appeal of Paris confirmed yesterday the trial judgment in the case of the "Erika", this oil that has soiled 400 kilometres of coastline in its sinking in December 1999. She rejected requests for release of the accused, to the first rank of which Total, while confirming and amplifying the concept of "environmental damage". In its judgment, a text of more than 500 pages, it seeks to strengthen the environmental law, within the framework of international maritime law.

This is why the Court differentiates the shipowner, the Manager and the classification of the "Erika" society, that it believed directly responsible to navigate a ship poorly maintained and corroded the Total Group. It was considered imprudent not inspecting not itself ship before using it and it is therefore criminally responsible under the offence of pollution of the French law. However, it is protected by the international maritime law, which channels the liability of pollution by hydrocarbons to vessel owners and not the charterers.

Three types of damage

The Court therefore finds that is not Total must pay the damages awarded to the civil parties. Guilty but not responsible for, the Total accused, who will study the appeal in cassation, or not would have preferred the reverse and reminded that he has already spent his own 200 million for the cleaning of coasts and 171.5 million in damages and interest the civil parties after the first judgment.

Delighted, they welcomed a historic victory for the environment. The Minister of the environment, Jean-Louis Borloo, has commended the progress of the right side: "the concept of environmental responsibility has become a reality." Damage to the environment have a cost and this decision of justice has just confirmed. ""Environmental harm"had been recognized for the first time in the first instance, but very timidly. Granted to a single association and only one local community. The Court of appeal extends it to most of the complainants. So that local communities, including the regions of Brittany, Pays de la Loire and Poitou-Charentes, receive allowances for three types of damages: "hardware" for infrastructure to clean, "image" for damage to their reputation and "green" for the degradation of their natural heritage, or the amount of allowances on average 80 higher than that obtained in the first instance.

The tribunal grants to the associations of interests in respect of the environmental damage, though even they cannot handle directly degraded natural heritage.

Are therefore condemned criminal as in the first instance, Total, the classification society Rina, Giuseppe Savarese shipowner and Manager Antonio Pollara in maximum fines for pollution: 375,000 euros for the first two, corporations, and 75,000 euros for the last.

The civil compensation spend 192.5 million to EUR 203 million. $ 171.5 Million, of which 154 million for the State, has already been paid by Total and are not called into question, since these payments "immediate and definitive" had been paid in exchange for a stay of proceedings.

68 Communities and associations who had refused the first cheque are thus entitled to more, but to the accused (Rina, Pollara and Savarese) whose solvency is not guaranteed.

Lawyer of ten Commons, Corinne Lepage is insurgent against the exemption to pay Total, stating quite worrying that an oil tanker is not liable when it uses a junk ship. Rina, Pollara and Savarese said that they were going to appeal in cassation.