Asbestos: the Court of Cassation validates the resumption of the investigation into the Everite company

The families of the victims are fighting to obtain a lawsuit against those responsible for this company in Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et-Marne).

In an order dated March 8, consulted by AFP, the president of the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation decided that there was "no reason to admit, as it stands, the appeal of the public prosecutor near the Paris Court of Appeal "in the file of the Everite site in Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et-Marne).

He considered that "neither the interest of public order, nor that of a good administration of justice" required the latter to be examined for the moment.

With this appeal, the public prosecutor opposed a judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal of January 20 reversing the dismissal rendered in December 2018 by the judges responsible for the investigation of this subsidiary of Saint-Gobain.

In this judgment, the Court of Appeal had in fact returned the file to the investigating magistrates so that they could resume their investigations with a view to possible indictments of company officials.

Relying on a legal interpretation unprecedented in the history of this health scandal dating back more than twenty years, the Court of Appeal considered that the exposure of these employees to asbestos could be attributed to these officials.

It took the opposite view of an analysis established in 2017 by the investigating judges and the public health department of the Paris court, according to which it would be impossible to deduce with precision the moment of exposure of employees to this carcinogenic fiber. , and that of their contamination, and consequently to establish the criminal responsibilities of such or such leader.

Since then, fifteen cases, linked to the scandal of exposure to this material banned in France in 1997, had taken or were to take the path of a dismissal.

In a press release, the National Association for the Defense of Asbestos Victims (Andeva) welcomes this "new victory for the victims", and asks the judges of the public health pole of the Paris court "to resume without delay the investigation of the criminal file of the company Everite ", stressing that many responsible had already disappeared.

It also asked that the Paris Court of Appeal examine as quickly as possible the appeals formed in other cases related to asbestos which had also been concluded by dismissal of the investigating judges.

Michel Parigot, an official of another association for the defense of asbestos victims, the AVA, however considered that this decision would not allow a major trial on the "asbestos affair".

"What we can judge are simple health and safety matters, but not national officials" for this scandal, he told AFP. The reason why the AVA wants to file a direct citation targeting the national officials responsible for the asbestos health disaster.

This procedure, announced two years ago but still not initiated, makes it possible to appeal directly to the court without going through a criminal investigation, with the plaintiffs responsible for collecting and presenting evidence at the hearing.