On June 27, 1991, 20 people died from asphyxiation following an accident at the Barbotan thermal baths roof renovation site, located in the town of Cazaubon: a worker had knocked over a bucket of hot tar onto the roof; the tar seeped through a hole the size of a coin, setting fire to the polyethylene and the adjacent structure, and causing the death by asphyxiation of spa guests who were inside the building.
In this case, the firm represented the mayor of the municipality, who was sued along with the two prefects (the one in office when the work began and his successor) and other officials from the “Chaîne de stations thermales du Soleil” spa chain.
On July 29, 1998, the Toulouse Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal of the prefects, the conviction of the head of the Chaîne de stations thermales du Soleil, and the mayor’s conviction, for which he received a light, suspended sentence. The Court of Cassation dismissed the appeals filed by the parties involved.
The mayor was held criminally liable as an individual, separate from the municipality’s civil liability as a legal entity. This case, along with others, likely prompted the reform of the Penal Code through the Fauchon Act, since mayors were most often on the front lines in cases of accidents occurring within their municipalities. This reform was initially intended to apply only to public officials until the Constitutional Council ruled that citizens could not be discriminated against and that special rules could not be established for one group over another. The Fauchon Act incorporated this new concept into the Penal Code: “deliberate or gross negligence,” the latter being presumed to be so serious that it is obvious to judges.
In any case, given the nature of the acts he was accused of—which could in no way be considered gross misconduct under the July 2000 law that was about to be passed—the mayor of Cazaubon could not have been prosecuted under that law.