- 15 years after the collapse of the municipal archives: proceedings closed
More than 15 years after the collapse of the Cologne City Archive with two fatalities, the Cologne Regional Court has suspended the criminal proceedings against the four remaining defendants upon payment of fines. Both the prosecution and the defendants had given their consent for this, the Cologne Regional Court announced. If the defendants meet the conditions, the criminal proceedings will be permanently suspended. The fines were set at 5,000 euros and 2,000 euros respectively.
The City Archive collapsed on March 3, 2009. The cause was later found to be severe defects in the construction of a new U-Bahn station. A 27-meter-deep construction pit in its immediate vicinity had filled up with water and sand due to a burst slit wall, causing the archive to lose its foundation.
The case went up to the BGH
The Regional Court stated that the defendants could only be accused of indirect responsibility for the disaster in the construction pit. The immediate damage was attributed to two co-defendants, a digger driver and a foreman, who could no longer be prosecuted. The digger driver had died and the foreman had become unfit for trial due to an illness during the main hearing in 2018.
In the criminal proceedings at the Cologne Regional Court, two site managers had to answer for the charge of double negligent homicide by omission, but were acquitted in 2018. Two other defendants, a senior site manager and a man commissioned by the local transport company to oversee the construction, were sentenced to suspended prison terms in 2018 and 2019 for double negligent homicide.
The Federal Court of Justice overturned the acquittals and convictions in 2021 and referred the case back to the Cologne Regional Court.
The case involving the double negligent homicides was initially handled by the Cologne Regional Court, which resulted in acquittals and convictions. Later, the Federal Court of Justice overturned these rulings and sent the case back to the Cologne Regional Court for reconsideration. The Office of the Prosecutor will continue to be involved in the proceedings, as both the prosecution and defendants have agreed to the suspension of criminal proceedings upon payment of fines.
