Burn victims treated worse than suspects: Crans-Montana double-whammy, years of arguments over medical bills and compensation
Conflict of Interest disclaimer: the author has resided in Switzerland, he has taken the Swiss citizenship oath and, from time to time, been party to legal and contractual relationships involving parties referenced in the JuristGate reports. The nature of these relationships is often declared within the research reports although we can't rule out the possibility some relationships or influences have not been explicitly itemized within every report.
The Nazis claimed they were humane killers. Victims of Zyklon B in the gas chambers were supposed to die within two minutes.
Those who survived the fire at Le Constellation, Crans-Montana, Canton Valais are set to face years of arguments about their medical bills and compensation.
Authorities have revealed the vast majority of victims have inhaled hot and poisonous fumes, burning their airways and lungs and requiring them to be placed into an induced coma and intubated.
We don't know if they are having dreams or nightmares in the coma. What we do know is that they will wake up to the nightmare of Swiss medical bills and insurance companies.
Tages Anzeiger has discussed the scars of medical debt with Swiss jurist Rolf Steinegger. Many other media outlets repeated his comments (also in Le Temps):
For victims, the process can be very grueling.
The victims of the fire in Crans-Montana could face a legal battle lasting years. A lawyer is therefore appealing to the federal government – also to protect Switzerland's reputation.
...
Clarifying which party (managers, building inspectors, architect, builder) is really guilty after the club fire that killed 40 people could take years.
...
“It can often take years before they receive compensation, and even then, it can be very unsatisfactory.”
...
... prevent a repeat of the Kaprun fire disaster in November 2000. The tunnel fire, which claimed 155 lives, was followed by years of legal proceedings. "In the end, the victims were frustrated because they felt the process was unfair," Steinegger explains.
...
People who are disabled after the disaster and, for example, can no longer work, face enormous follow-up costs. "These costs are simply incalculable," says Steinegger.
The inspectors, architect and suppliers of insulation will all try to cover themselves and point blame at each other. This will frustrate victims.
This web site was originally founded when the insurance regulator themselves failed. Look at the example of the email from Joao Rodrigues Boleiro. In the email, written in French, Rodrigues Boleiro is telling me that he is not responsible and it is all the fault of another partner in the firm: Mathieu Parreaux, the founder. In the last post that Parreaux himself published on LinkedIn, Parreaux told us that FINMA is responsible.
Look at Grenfell Tower and the insulation company. Internal documents show that the manufacturer, Kingspan, knew about fire risk and promoted the product in places where it shouldn't be used.
Yet in Canton Valais, they weren't even sure how many victims they have. It took a week for all victims to be counted correctly before they can even begin thinking about legal action. First they told us there were 113 victims, then there were 119 victims and now only 116 victims (also in BBC report).
In the German language, we use the same word, Schuldige, for somebody who is guilty of a crime and Schuldner for somebody who has a big debt for medical expenses.
The owners of the bar, who are suspects have been given unconditional bail and are free to come and go as they please while the investigation is underway, even while some of the victims may be involuntarily confined to hospital for months.
When somebody fell on Carla in Zurich, the Swiss authorities spent two years protecting the yoga studio and blaming Carla and I.
I hope the victims of the fire will not spend the next two years in arguments about insurance. The jurist Rolf Steinegger suggests it may be much longer than that.
While victims wait for the money questions to be resolved, they may have a black mark on their credit record. This is called a Betreibung in German or a poursuite in French. The same word is also used to describe stalking. Think of these black marks on the credit record as analogous to the life-long scars on the victims' faces.
The Holocaust kicked off with the Kristallnacht, or night of broken glass, on 9 November 1938. Incidentally, one of the most violent attacks against a young woman in Australia took place on 9 November 2005. Lauren Huxley was beaten with a wrench and then set on fire.
At the end of his sentence, the man responsible was released from prison in 2025. The media were keen to interview Lauren and publish before-and-after photos.
Technically, on paper, Jacques Moretti and Jessica Maric may be responsible for the tragedy because they own the bar. In practice, most bar owners are not experts on the use of fire-resistant construction practices and they depend on the suppliers of construction materials, the local municipality and the building inspectors to provide specialist insights into fire-resistant design.
Please see the rest of the JuristGate reports.
Conflict of Interest disclaimer: the author has resided in Switzerland, he has taken the Swiss citizenship oath and, from time to time, been party to legal and contractual relationships involving parties referenced in the JuristGate reports. The nature of these relationships is often declared within the research reports although we can't rule out the possibility some relationships or influences have not been explicitly itemized within every report.