The plaintiffs expected a lot from this ruling on Thursday. But the Besançon administrative court considered their request differently and rejected all the requests filed by former employees of the Alstom industrial site in Belfort, who sought compensation after being exposed to asbestos.
The plaintiffs asked the administrative justice system to order the State to pay them a total sum of 30,000 euros “in compensation for damages resulting from culpable failures in the management of the prevention of risks linked to professional exposure to dust. asbestos”. The latter in fact maintained that they are suffering problems in their living conditions resulting from the regular medical surveillance to which they must submit. But according to administrative justice, “it does not follow from the instruction that they are required to undergo medical monitoring with such frequency that it would affect their living conditions”, which does not make it possible to establish “the reality of their harm.”
“New obstacles”
André Chamy, lawyer at the Mulhouse bar who defends 60 plaintiffs in this case, expressed “his disgust at this decision, as if a curse fell on these employees”. According to him, “new obstacles present themselves” to his clients “every time”. “The French state creates these obstacles: prescription; the health center to divert the procedures, even though their requests were well-founded.” For the moment, he does not know if his clients will continue their legal proceedings, but he would “advise” them to appeal.