LIVORNO. Compensation, for the moment only provisional, for 2,050,000 euros. In addition to the procedural costs, settled at 194,000 for the first level of judgment, to which the general costs for 15% of the amount, that for the lawyers’ social security fund and VAT must be added. After the publication of the reasons for the flood ruling, in which the former mayor Philip Nogarin was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for multiple manslaughter, the Municipality – condemned together with him to compensate the families of the eight victims as civilly responsible for the disaster – yesterday presented the lawyer’s report to the council and undertook, as established by the judge Ottavio Mosti, to pay provisions to the heirs of deceased persons. Later, when the sentence becomes final, if the scenarios do not change (from the political leadership of the institution, for example, but above all if the outcome of the ruling, for which an appeal will be appealed, does not change), Palazzo Civico will take action against the former mayor of the 5 Star Movement.
Figures still provisional
The amounts that will be paid to the victims’ families are only provisional for the moment. This is the so-called provisional, immediately enforceable, to which further resources identified in civil proceedings could then be added, once the criminal sentence becomes final. The total quantification of the damage, the loss of eight lives, is in fact still far away. The victims of the terrible flood that occurred on the night between 9 and 10 September 2017 were Gianfranco Tampucci, Roberto Vestuti, Martina Bechini, Raimondo Frattali, Glenda Garzelli, Simone, Filippo and Roberto Ramacciotti. According to judge Ottavio Mosti, who read the first instance sentence last October 14, their deaths “could have been avoided through correct prevention activities”. The alert system, if it had been activated, could have allowed them to save themselves by reaching the higher floors or, in any case, a safer position. «There are very well-founded reasons to support, with high rational credibility and high logical probability – we read in the sentence – that the action of informing the population, immediately following the weather alert or during the event, when still possible , would have induced the recipients of the danger communication to abandon the places at risk”.
Amounts
For little Camilla – daughter of the deceased Simone Ramacciotti and Glenda Garzelli, who also lost her little brother Filippo and her grandfather Roberto, who worked in an insurance agency in Empoli together with her son – the court ordered compensation of 300,000 euros. Two hundred and fifty thousand, however, for her uncle Giorgio, the same amount decided for her grandmother Paola Risi. One hundred and fifty thousand euros, however, for Carlo Garzelli and Simonetta Grimaldi Bernuzzi, who never missed a hearing in the trial: they are Filippo’s grandparents, as well as Glenda’s parents. The same sum will be paid by the Municipality to Michela De Murtas, mother of Martina Bechini. One hundred thousand euros, however, to her husband Filippo Meschini and her sister Alessandra Bechini, then to Marco and Francesca Frattali (born in Viareggio and Raimondo’s children), to their mother Maria Cristina Stabili and to Maria Luisa Matteini and Andrea Vestuti, wife and son respectively by Roberto Vestuti. Finally, again on a provisional basis, 50 thousand euros for Alba and Mara Tampucci, Gianfranco’s sisters and partners. The family members were assisted, during the criminal proceedings, by the lawyers Massimo Manfredini, Lorenzo Mini, Cristiano Spadoni, Danilo Adoncecchi, Carlo Golda and Paola Bernardo.
«No damage to image»
On the one hand, the Municipality was civilly liable together with Nogarin, while on the other it was a civil party, asking the former mayor for one hundred thousand euros for alleged damage to its image. A request which, however, was rejected by the court. «The damage to the image of the entity cannot be considered implicit whenever one of its functions is carried out in illegitimate or inappropriate ways – writes judge Ottavio Mosti – but must be promptly attached and proven. In the case in question, even leaving in the background the considerations made on the assumptions of the inefficiency of civil protection not directly attributable to Nogarin, but to previous disorganization and negligence (think, for example, of the shortcomings of the municipal civil protection plan), it is absorbing to point out that the Municipality of Livorno did not introduce into the hearing any source of evidence regarding the attached damage to image and what represents its central and constitutive data, i.e. the perception ab externo, between members and other institutional figures, of the organisation’s operations”.
Tags: Livorno flood Municipality pay million compensation Tirreno family members
