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French Polynesia court dismisses nuclear compensation cases

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Labor Tribunal of Papeete in French Polynesia on Friday dismissed three nuclear compensation cases against the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) brought by former test site workers. Of eight cases the court considered, damages were awarded only to the children of one deceased worker. The judge awarded damages worth $11,000 to each of the three children of the deceased worker for their pain and suffering, but dismissed the widow's claim based on current law. The judge ordered further medical investigation for four of the remaining compensation cases, in which two former workers are still alive. The judge ruled that the three claims that were dismissed lacked sufficient proof that the workers, two of whom are still alive, worked on the tests. Claimants in all eight cases had petitioned for a pension from the Caisse de Prevoyance Social, the Tahitian organism charged with ensuring social security, but were rejected. Moruroa e Tatou, the organization of former workers from the test sites of Moruroa and Fangataufa, is committed to continue pursuing the claims that were dismissed by the judge based on current law. The organization's president Roland Oldham decried the amount awarded in damages by the court for the deceased worker's children as "a very bad joke" and expressed hope that the Nuclear Compensation bill under current consideration in France will improve former worker's prosepects for recovery by changing the required burden of proof. The French parliament will vote on the bill on June 30. Earlier this month, the British High Court of Justice ruled that military veterans involved in nuclear tests have the right to sue the Ministry of Defense for injuries resulting from exposure to radiation, but recommended mediation as a means for achieving a settlement citing the uncertainties of litigation and the age of the veterans. Recently, the Tokyo High Court granted an appeal to consider 30 people for official recognition as atomic bomb victims resulting from the US atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. Earlier this year, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of complaints brought by the people and descendants of the Bikini and Enewetak Atolls seeking further compensation arising out of bomb testing in the 1940s and 1950s.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on June 27, 2009 (boomark / email).