This decision follows a rejection by the prefects of Eure and Seine-Maritime to compensate the two companies.
The State was ordered to pay more than 584,000 euros to the motorway companies SAPN and Sanef for financial damages suffered during the demonstrations of “yellow vests» organized between November 2018 and June 2019. In a decision of June 23, the Administrative Court of Rouen recognized the financial damage suffered by the Société des Autoroutes de Paris-Normandie (SAPN) and the Sanef (Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de eastern France).
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The State will have to pay 27,687 euros to Sanef, after five demonstrations organized at toll stations, and 557,300 euros to SAPN after 32 demonstrations which led in particular to “operations allowing users to use the motorway without paying the toll“. This decision follows a rejection by the prefects of Eure and Seine-Maritime to compensate the two companies.
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«These facts, which occurred in a context of protest on a national scale, were not … committed by groups which would have been formed and organized for the sole purpose of committing crimes, unrelated to the protest movement for national scale of the Yellow Vests, contrary to what the prefect of Seine-Maritime arguesand Eure in defence, notes the judgment.
To justify its decision, the court relied in particular on an article of the internal security code, according to which “the State is civilly liable for damages resulting from crimes and misdemeanors committed (…) by armed or unarmed crowds or gatherings, either against persons or against property“. Justice also recognized the existence of degradations.