Collapsed balcony in Angers: the architect and the works manager condemned on appeal

The two men were acquitted on criminal charges at first instance, the court having only recognized the responsibility of the architect in the civil aspect. But the prosecution appealed because it considered that the court had failed to take into account “serious faults”.

The architect, this time found guilty of injuries and manslaughter, was sentenced on appeal to three years in prison and a fine of 30.000 euros. The works manager was sentenced to a two-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 1.500 euros.

On October 15, 2016, a group of friends participated in a housewarming party in an apartment on the third floor of a building in downtown Angers, delivered in 1998.

While the evening was going on peacefully, the balcony suddenly fell apart, dragging eighteen people into the void.

Four of them, aged 18 to 25, died.

In May 2022, the Angers court at first instance sentenced the boss of the masonry company which had built the building as well as the site manager and the controller of the audit office to suspended prison terms and fines. .

But the works manager, Eric Morand, had been acquitted, like the architect Frédéric Rolland, simply ordered to pay civil compensation.

Message to professionals?

During the appeal trial which was held in the fall of 2023, the architect and the works manager were questioned about the absence of a new plan following the change in the method of construction of the balconies, which were to initially to be prefabricated but were cast on site.

The poor positioning of the reinforcements, visible on the site according to the experts, was at the heart of the debates.

During the requisitions, a three-year suspended prison sentence, a fine of just over 40.000 euros as well as a definitive ban on practicing the profession of architect were requested by the prosecution. A two-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 1.500 euros were requested against the works manager.

“We see the idea emerging of an indirect responsibility of the architect due to his collaborator on the site,” lamented Me Cyrille Charbonneau, one of the lawyers of the architect Frédéric Rolland.

Judging the sentence to be severe, he regrets in particular that the Court of Appeal "aligns" the criminal sanction of the architect with that of the boss of the masonry company convicted at first instance when, according to him, it is "established that it is a fault in execution which caused the accident.

Me Charbonneau has not ruled out filing an appeal.

“Justice has been served,” responded Eric Groud, father of Benjamin, a 23-year-old young man killed in the collapse.

He hopes that the judgment will encourage building professionals to realize "that it is not only up to those who carry out the project to ensure that it is carried out well but also to those who are responsible for supervising it, to supervise it, to control it."

“The construction of buildings is too serious. We must not entrust it to artists who are more concerned with the color of the plaster than with the solidity of the building,” he added.

Although they consider the sanction "rather coherent", Pascale and Guillaume Chéné, parents of Lou, 18, killed in the accident and of her brother Théophile, nevertheless regret that the court did not also impose a ban on practicing his profession against the architect. “Can someone who is criminally and civilly guilty continue to practice their profession properly?”