Unanimously, the Third Panel of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) determined that the families who were victims of the collapse of the Palace 2 Building, which took place 24 years ago, in Rio de Janeiro , will share compensation. The tragedy caused the death of eight people. The repair money comes from land in Brasilia auctioned in 2017.
The STJ recognized that there was fraud in the execution with the sale of the land, because as 1/3 belonged to businessman Sérgio Naya, owner of the construction company responsible for the construction of the enterprise and, in the STJ’s understanding, this part would be responsible for the payment of indemnities to the victims of the Palace. Now, the process will return to the Court of Justice of Rio for a judicial expert to evaluate and point out the division of the amount to be deposited in the bank accounts of the 120 victim families.
“Based on the various official communications made announcing the unavailability of 100% (one hundred percent) of the assets that constituted the assets of the defendants in the civil action, associated with the national repercussion of the case involving the collapse of a residential building that resulted in the death of 8 (eight) people and in the eviction of countless families, the Court of origin considered that the hypothesis of fraud in the execution was configured”, said the rapporteur, Minister Villas Boas Cueva.
According to Rauliete Barbosa, a former resident of the building and president of the residents’ association, the decision was received with satisfaction by the families. “We are satisfied and satisfied with the decision. I have always believed in justice, no matter the time.” she said.
Rauliete, who is also a lawyer and followed the entire process for 24 years, had two apartments at Palace 2. Her son was in one of the apartments and left the property a few minutes before the collapse. Since the tragedy, on February 22, 1998, the families of the 120 occupied apartments – out of a total of 176 – have received, at most, a quarter of the compensation owed by the construction company in Naya.
Understand the tragedy of Palace 2
Palace 2 was located in Barra da Tijuca, an upper-middle class neighborhood in Rio, and was imploded on February 28, 1998. The building had serious structural and finishing defects and was interdicted by the Civil Defense. The investigations found a structural error in the calculation (signed by the responsible engineer) in the support beams as the cause of the tragedy.
The first collapse took place at 3:00 am on February 22, 1998, when pillars 1 and 2 of the building, which contained 44 apartments, collapsed, burying eight people. Despite the ban, 30 residents entered the unit to look for belongings and that’s when the collapse happened, burying eight people.
The second collapse occurred shortly before 1 pm on February 27, 1998 and 22 apartments were destroyed. Thirty minutes before the collapse, the technical report recommended that the residents return to the building to recover their assets, when an inexplicable column of water erupts from the 23rd floor roof with tons of water.
According to residents, during construction, in 1996, the building was closed by the Civil Defense after a worker died when he fell into the pit of the faulty elevator. The construction company had already been sued four times due to the bad construction of the building, which also did not have a permit from the city hall.
Source: CNN Brasil
