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Tsunami victims file lawsuit
From correspondents in Vienna
March 06, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
SEVERAL dozen European victims of Asia's tsunami disaster have filed a lawsuit demanding that Thai authorities, US forecasters, and a French hotel chain prove that they reacted adequately.
In what is believed to be the first tsunami claim worldwide, US lawyer Edward Fagan and two other lawyers have filed the suit with a New York district court on behalf of more than 60 plaintiffs from Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The suit was filed against the Thai government, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its Tsunami Warning Centre, and the French hotel group Sofitel, said Herwig Hasslacher, one of the group's lawyers.
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The plaintiffs accuse Thai authorities of not releasing information about the impending sea surge as soon as they received it, arguing that a more prompt alert would have saved thousands of lives.
They also accuse the NOAA, whose Hawaii-based tsunami warning centre covers only the Pacific, of not informing Indian Ocean states of the tsunami even though they had registered the seaquake.
The French hotel chain Sofitel, part of the group Accor, is accused of knowingly building the Sofitel Khao Lak Beach in the Thai resort of Phuket on a fault line, along with failing to inform parents of the victims and failing to repatriate some of the victims' bodies.
The lawyers said the suit was not, at present, designed to demand compensation but to uncover evidence that would prove negligence.
Mr Fagan asked the US court to ensure the preservation of key documents needed for the case, such as satellite imagery and contacts between the NOAA, Thailand and Indonesia, Mr Hasslacher said.
The court was expected to set a date for a hearing within the next 30 days in which tsunami survivors could be heard, he added.
The number of people believed to have perished in the December 26 tsunami stood at 273,435 today, more than two months after the disaster.
Mr Fagan successfully fought a class action suit against Swiss banks by Holocaust victims.
i can't believe someone's going to try to sue somebody over this. dam lawyers
From correspondents in Vienna
March 06, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse
SEVERAL dozen European victims of Asia's tsunami disaster have filed a lawsuit demanding that Thai authorities, US forecasters, and a French hotel chain prove that they reacted adequately.
In what is believed to be the first tsunami claim worldwide, US lawyer Edward Fagan and two other lawyers have filed the suit with a New York district court on behalf of more than 60 plaintiffs from Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The suit was filed against the Thai government, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its Tsunami Warning Centre, and the French hotel group Sofitel, said Herwig Hasslacher, one of the group's lawyers.
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The plaintiffs accuse Thai authorities of not releasing information about the impending sea surge as soon as they received it, arguing that a more prompt alert would have saved thousands of lives.
They also accuse the NOAA, whose Hawaii-based tsunami warning centre covers only the Pacific, of not informing Indian Ocean states of the tsunami even though they had registered the seaquake.
The French hotel chain Sofitel, part of the group Accor, is accused of knowingly building the Sofitel Khao Lak Beach in the Thai resort of Phuket on a fault line, along with failing to inform parents of the victims and failing to repatriate some of the victims' bodies.
The lawyers said the suit was not, at present, designed to demand compensation but to uncover evidence that would prove negligence.
Mr Fagan asked the US court to ensure the preservation of key documents needed for the case, such as satellite imagery and contacts between the NOAA, Thailand and Indonesia, Mr Hasslacher said.
The court was expected to set a date for a hearing within the next 30 days in which tsunami survivors could be heard, he added.
The number of people believed to have perished in the December 26 tsunami stood at 273,435 today, more than two months after the disaster.
Mr Fagan successfully fought a class action suit against Swiss banks by Holocaust victims.
i can't believe someone's going to try to sue somebody over this. dam lawyers
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