Due to the measures imposed by the state of health emergency, there were not enough seats for all the lawyers concerned by the summons for expert appraisal filed by the insurer and coming to a hearing this Tuesday, December 1, 2020 , at the Bayonne court.
La Maif, which provides civil liability insurance for the Basque Country Child Protection Association (SEAPB), wishes to obtain a new expertise on the causes and aggravating factors of the fire which ravaged, on the evening of Thursday, July 30, 2020, the Pignada forest and a dozen houses.
As part of the investigation following this incident, a 16-year-old teenager, placed under the responsibility of the SEAPB, was implicated. What engages the responsibility of the association and therefore its insurer.
It is for this reason that the Maif intends to obtain new expertise from the courts, with the aim of determining whether factors such as forest maintenance, equipment and the speed of intervention of the firefighters, have, or not, contributed to the development of fire.
Many parts
The summons were sent to all the stakeholders in this heavy file, in particular the Departmental Council of the Pyrénées Atlantiques and the City of Anglet, two of the three co-owners of the Pignada forest, the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service and the ‘National Forest Office, to which the management of Pignada was entrusted.
But also the owners of houses bordering the massif, which were destroyed or damaged by fire. The assurances of these different parties are also questioned.
Late assignments
It appeared at the opening of the hearing and after the call of all parties by President Patricia Sorondo that all the assignments were not not arrived within the legal deadlines.
Several lawyers requested the referral of the file. The date of Tuesday, January 19, 2021 has been chosen, for what is certainly only the first episode of a long judicial journey.
–
