According to AP, a Paris court rejected a compensation claim in relation to the MS Estonia ferry that sank in 1994, and remains one of the deadliest maritime disasters in Europe. The court sought 40.8 million euros from Bureau Veritas, that deemed the ship seaworthy and the German shipbuilder Meyer-Werft.
Specifically, the sinking incident took place on September 28, 1994 and resulted to 852 people losing their lives. The MS Estonia was a car ferry connecting the Estonian capital of Tallinn with Stockholm.
Moreover, AP reports that a French court in the western suburb on Nanterre declined the claim, due to lack of international fault attributable to either company in the case, the second-deadliest peacetime sinking of a European ship after the Titanic.
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Henning Witte, a German lawyer who represents relatives in the case, reported to the Swedish news agency TT that the ruling was, ‘of course, a disappointment.’ He continued that this event is being ignored and disrespectful to the relatives.
in the meantime, Raivo Hellerma, a spokesman for Memento Mare, representing Estonian victims commented ‘we had no expectations’ in this case.
The case has been making its way through French courts since 1996, and had been retried on appeal twice.
