We won’t know the judgment until at the latest in a month. But for the public rapporteur, the State is not responsible for the death of a jogger on September 8, 2016 in a mudflat overgrown with green algae in Hillion (Côtes-d’Armor). During the hearing, which was held this Thursday morning before the administrative court of Rennes, Dominique Remy certainly denounced “the deficiency of the State” in the proliferation of green algae in Brittany.
But according to him, “the causal link” between the presence of the algae and the death of the jogger “cannot be established, and the same goes for the responsibility of the State. “Mr. Auffray died of sudden respiratory failure which could have been due to exposure to green algae or cardiac arrest,” he declared in front of a packed house, which included the widow and children of the victim.
The investigation closed without further action by the prosecution
Aged 50 and a fan of trail running, Jean-René Auffray was found dead in Hillion on September 8, 2016, in the mud of the Gouessant estuary, which flows into the bay of Saint-Brieuc and where he had presumably ventured out to rescue his dog. When learning the place of death, frequently subject to green tides, associations immediately wondered about the link with green algae, which, as they decompose, emit hydrogen sulphide (H2S), a gas which may fatal in case of high dose exposure.
Two weeks after the events, the Saint-Brieuc prosecutor’s office ordered the exhumation of the jogger’s body for an autopsy and toxicological analyses. Carried out too late, these had not however made it possible to clearly determine the causes of death, and the investigation had been closed without further action in April 2017.
The family claims 600,000 euros in compensation
The family of the victim had seized administrative justice in July 2019 to seek compensation from the municipality of Hillion, the agglomeration of Saint-Brieuc and the State, claiming nearly 600,000 euros in compensation for the damage suffered.
Maître François Lafforgue, family lawyer, regretted the “a little summary” conclusions of the public rapporteur. “The autopsy report does not mention any other possible cause of death”, he underlined, adding that the presence of H2S was “proven on the site” thanks to “measurements made by associations. »