The loss of his sister weighs on Gustavo Barroso Camara to this day. As if grief slumbered somewhere inside, he says, and sometimes it just wakes up and hits him again with full force. In January 2019, his sister Izabela in Brazil was swept away by a mudslide and killed after the retention basin of an iron ore mine burst and millions of tons of mud shot through the valley. She was just in the canteen of the mining company for which she worked as an engineer.
This week the grief is back: Gustavo Barroso Camara appeared in a black suit on Tuesday at the Munich Regional Court and asked TÜV Süd to face its responsibility for the accident. “They certified the dam as safe, even though it wasn’t safe,” he said of the Brazilian engineers who worked for a local company owned by Munich-based TÜV Süd and who classified the dam as safe at the time. Barroso Camara is now suing for damages together with the affected municipality of Brumadinho, which is north of Rio de Janeiro. “TÜV Süd has to pay all victims adequate compensation.”
For TÜV Süd, the disaster on the South American continent is already one of the worst events in the company’s 150-year history. And it could get worse. First, there is a lot of money involved. Should Gustavo Barroso Camara win, hundreds of other victims should also complain, the relatives of the 270 dead, the wounded, those whose cars were torn away, whose houses were full of mud. The damage in Brumadinho, a town near the disaster mine, is considerable; in places the dried mud, now hard as cement, is still meters high.
Second, it is about the good reputation of TÜV Süd, which offers its services worldwide and benefits from the reputation of German engineers. This reputation has already suffered from the disaster in Brazil. In addition, the Munich I public prosecutor’s office is investigating a criminal complaint from relatives of victims of the dam breach against a Munich engineer from the security company. At a meeting in Brazil, the engineer is said to have failed to prevent an illegal declaration of stability from the TÜV inspectors there for the trunk dam. In addition, a fine procedure is in progress against a senior controller from the corporate headquarters in Munich, who is said to have neglected his supervisory duties.
The engineer, the chief inspector and TÜV Süd reject the allegations of the complainants and all other allegations. The outcome of the proceedings is open. But the suspicions alone put a strain on the TÜV brand, which stands for competence and incorruptibility. It is all the more important for TÜV Süd that the Brazilian Barroso Camara fails with his lawsuit. This would not only save the testing company a lot of money. It would also be a judicial confirmation not to be responsible for the disaster. Last year, TÜV Süd set aside 20 million euros for legal and consulting fees.
After the trial in Munich, Gustavo Barroso Camara is tired, but he has a good feeling. The court negotiated for five hours and asked many questions. The Brazilian, who lost his sister, believes the judiciary is seriously looking into the case. “It’s a very long road to justice, but today we took a first step.” The district court wants to declare on February 1, 2022 whether you want to continue negotiating or already give a judgment. The plaintiffs claim to have heard from the court’s questions that they had a good chance.
An indigenous woman from the Pataxo Ha-ha-hae tribe on the banks of the Paraopeba River after the disaster.
(Photo: Adriano Machado / Reuters)
There are four key questions. The first is: Did TÜV Süd in Munich, which is being sued in court, have anything to do with the whole thing? After all, possible mistakes happened at a local TÜV Süd company in Brazil, far away from the corporate headquarters in Germany. The plaintiffs are convinced that the German group must take full responsibility for its Brazil business. The engineer from Munich, who is being investigated, took part in a meeting with his colleagues in South America in May 2018.
The Brazilian colleagues are said to have reported that the dam was in an ailing condition. And if they feared alienating their powerful client, the mining company Vale, they would classify its dam as unsafe. A consultancy contract was in prospect from Vale, better endowed than the test contract. The responsible public prosecutor in Brazil came to the conclusion that the German engineer was aware of this conflict of interest and the dam problems and was jointly responsible for the disaster. The TÜV Süd, however, now declared in court that their Munich engineer was only responsible for “strategic questions”. He did not understand anything about dams and therefore did not influence “day-to-day operations”. The local TÜV company in Brazil acted on its own responsibility.
The second question is: Does the German TÜV Süd group have to pay even if nobody in Germany has made a mistake? According to Brazilian environmental law, anyone engaged in a risky activity is liable for any damage. It doesn’t matter whether he is to blame or not. The mining company Vale, which operated the mine, has to pay. And the TÜV Süd? From his own point of view, he’s just an examiner. The plaintiffs disagree. TÜV Süd has certified the dam and is also liable under Brazilian law. “Without the certificate, the dam would not have been operated, human lives would have been saved,” said plaintiff lawyer Jan Erik Spangenberg in court. He wants to enforce Brazilian law in Germany, TÜV Süd wants to prevent that.
The victims fear a year-long dispute over compensation issues
That leads to the third question: Was there a connection between the TÜV report on the dam and the death of so many people? TÜV Süd denies this: Even if the local TÜV inspectors had officially declared the dam to be unsafe, the mining company Vale and the authorities in Brazil would not have taken any additional measures to prevent the dam from breaking. The area below the dam would not have been evacuated either. The plaintiffs from Brazil consider this argument to be unproven and cynical.
Fourth question: Do the victims still need compensation at all? No, thinks TÜV Süd: The mining group Vale, which is one of the largest companies of its kind in the world, is already obliged to pay comprehensive compensation and has the necessary money for it. The Brumadinho community and Gustavo Barroso Camara’s family have either already received money or have been awarded by the Brazilian judiciary.
The Munich district court asked whether it would be bad if the victims also got something from TÜV Süd. No, that wouldn’t be bad, replied a lawyer from TÜV Süd. But for compensation you need damage, and that is already being repaired by the operator of the dam. The plaintiffs, on the other hand, fear that the many victims in Brazil will have to fight for compensation for years to come. It is better to have two debtors than just one.
Apparently nobody from Munich has been to Brazil from TÜV Süd after the disaster. Avimar de Melo Barcelos, the mayor of Brumadinho, said in court that the Germans should come and see it.