Last year, a Hungarian law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of the 78 South Korean victims of the Hablány cruise ship accident on behalf of the 78 South Korean victims of the violation of their personal rights. In the next few days, the first part of the civil litigation, the hearing, will begin. HUF 4.3 billion is at stake.

The civil lawsuit for damages in the case of the Danube ship disaster that claimed 28 lives three years ago will begin with the opening of the lawsuit. In the nine-hundred-page claim, the Hungarian Oppenheim Law Office requests the payment of a total of HUF 4.3 billion in damages from the Capital Court on behalf of the relatives of the South Korean victims of the Mermaid disaster, as well as the seven survivors. (The damage award is compensation for previous non-material damage - ed.)

Against the 78 plaintiffs from the Far East represented by the law firm, the owner of the Viking Sigyn, which caused the Danube disaster on May 29, 2019, the Swiss-registered Viking River Cruises AG., and the operator of the Hableány, the Hungarian Panoráma Deck Kft., are the defendants. In his statement of claim, the plaintiff requests that the two companies be jointly and severally liable.

The claim for damages states that there was no full view from the Hableány's wheelhouse due to the deck tarpaulin and the ship's chimney. According to Zsolt Sógor, Panoráma Deck Kft.'s lawyer, the regulation requires a 240 degree view and not a full 360 degree. The ship's chimney was one meter above the wheelhouse on Hableány. In the criminal trial, the nautical forensic expert was asked about this at the last hearing, who stated that the fact that the chimney protrudes one meter increases visibility. The captain steering the Viking Sigynt should therefore have looked up even more to see the Hungarian cruise ship moving in the same direction but slower in front of him to the right.

In any case, Zsolt Sógor does not consider the allegations concerning the Hungarian company in the Oppenheim office's statement of claim to be acceptable, because they have not been examined in the ongoing criminal trial, and it is expected that they will not be. The responsibility of the crew of the Hableány was never raised during the criminal proceedings.

This is a fact even if the insurance company representing Viking River Cruises AG uttered a phrase, in my opinion, insulting, that the captain of the Mermaid would also be on the dock if he had survived the accident. I emphasize that there is nothing to substantiate either this opinion or the allegations regarding Panoráma Deck Kft. in the civil lawsuit, explained Zsolt Sógor to Magyar Nemzet.

You can read the entire Magyar Nemzet article

Picture: Árpád Kurucz