Factory fire in Pakistan – court decides on the claims for damages against Kik In Dortmund, the trial of the German textile manufacturer, Kik has begun. Relatives of victims of the Brands from 2012 to sue the company for damages. © Photo: Christophe Gateau/dpa
In the case of a fire in a Pakistani textile factory in Karachi, have died in the year 2012, more than 250 people. Three family members and a Survivor challenge, therefore, for Pain and suffering by the German textile discounter Kik, the had produce. Your claims might be Statute-barred. The question of whether the claims of the plaintiff have expired in accordance with Pakistani law, had to be answered First of all, decided by method of a Dortmund court in a civil case. Only if this were not time-barred, could be led to the procedure.
The decision will be made in the coming year, the regional court of Dortmund wants you on 10. January announce. A court-commissioned report by a British law Professor had come to the conclusion that the complaints should be dismissed because of the Statute of limitations is mandatory. The human rights organizations ECCHR and Medico International supported the plaintiff want to achieve, that for the first time, a German company, is made for a disaster at a supplier abroad can be held liable.
the fire in the garment factory Ali Enterprises in September 2012 was the result of an arson attack on the Pakistan protection money to the mafia. Kik should have used almost the entire capacity of the factory for the manufacture of its products. In the Dortmunder civil procedure, the four victims of the fire request from the Kik-supplier in Pakistan for Pain and suffering of the German company in the amount of 30,000 euros.
report to the Pakistani legal
The applicants from Pakistan claim that Kik does not have effect in the case of its suppliers sufficient compliance with safety standards and fire protection requirements – although the company was obliged to control. Kik rejects this.
The action of the Pakistanis is already in March 2015 at the Dortmunder regional court is pending. In the summer of 2016, said the court, the four Concerned legal aid for a lawsuit in Germany to cost – but stressed that no examination of the prospects of success. Because the complaints had to be dealt with according to Pakistani law. So it had requested the plaintiff himself.
In the result, the civil division sought an opinion from the Pakistani law. In this conclusion of the expert from the United Kingdom to the Conviction that it is possible claims were time-barred under Pakistani law.
The applicant Saeeda Khatoon, called the hearing in the civil proceedings an important step, no matter how the end of this procedure. “We have achieved a lot: Now, the court may allow the proceedings not to the Statute of limitations fail,” said Khatoon. She had lost in the fire disaster six years ago, your son.
About six million dollars for the Affected
plaintiff attorney Remo Klinger said, Kik “takes refuge in the Statute of limitations, and prevents the liability issues to be clarified”. Thomas Seibert, Medico International was of the opinion that the policy was in demand. “The time of voluntary self-commitments of companies is over. We need legal regulations for the enforcement of human and labor rights.”
The Kik-head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Ansgar Lohmann, referred to the fact that Kik had made after the factory fire in the past few years, more than six million dollars for the Affected. “This is an expression of our heartfelt sympathy for the Situation of the person Concerned.” The fire had been caused by a terrorist arson attack, for the Kik no fault meet. “The factory had no fire safety deficiencies.” Specifically covered fire rates should have made the escape routes and emergency exits, however, partly impassable.
“We maintain our view that the Statute of limitations has occurred,” said Lohmann. The court should in its deliberations to the same view, stay for the plaintiffs raised the question of the liability of companies for their suppliers to be answered. “This is what we perceive as unsatisfactory. Companies need legal security. For this reason, we have opted for a legal regulation of entrepreneurial duty of Care.”
