Justice orders Emelectric to pay $ 60 million to forest fires in 2013
Justice orders Emelectric to pay $ 60 million to forest fires in 2013
28 September 2017
published by http://www.biobiochile.cl
English version of the news. Note: the news has been translated by Google translator.
CHILE: $ 60 million will be paid by distributor Emelectric to the owners of three agricultural estates that were affected by the forest fire that took place in La Estrella, O’Higgins region, on January 9, 2013, as a result of the poor maintenance of the power line .
The decision was taken by the Supreme Court, which confirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua, which had already condemned the company to pay $ 30 million 835 thousand, for the affected María Padilla, the company Agrícola and Ganadera Fernández, and the owners of the agricultural estate San Valentín.
The judgment of the court of appeal established that the distributor Emelectric was responsible for the damages due to the failure to provide support for the network adjacent to the affected properties.
“One of the wires of said line was cut and a fire started in the place, which quickly spread to the neighboring properties, provoking enormous damages, the nature and amount of which the sententiators established according to the considerations set out in motivations 14 and 15, “the ruling said.
The fact, at the time, was verified by the head of the Conaf de Peumo brigade and a contractor of the defendant company, which established as probable baseline cause a cable cut, a fact that was also ratified by three witnesses, one of which witnessed the start of the fire.
