The Supreme Court yesterday ordered a construction firm responsible for a building in Taipei that collapsed during the Sept. 21, 1999, earthquake to pay a total of NT$330 million (US$10.8 million) in damages to the building’s 170 residents, bringing a 15-year battle over compensation to a close.
The magnitude 7.3 earthquake caused 2,456 deaths nationwide, including 87 people in Taipei’s Tunghsing Building (東星大樓), which was at the corner of Bade Road and Hulin Street.
One hundred and seventy of the building’s residents filed a NT$2.8 billion civil lawsuit against its architect, Chang Tsung-hsin (張宗炘), now deceased; Hung Gu Construction (鴻固營造); Hsieh Lung-sheng (謝隆盛), the now-deceased former manager of original contractor Hung Cheng Construction (宏程建設), and the inheritor of his estate, Hsieh Wu Hsueh-hui (謝吳雪蕙); Hung Kuo Construction (宏國建設); and state-run First Bank.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
However, the claimants are unlikely to receive any payment, as the individual defendants are either deceased or out of the country, while the companies named in the case have cleared their assets, the lawyer for the plaintiffs said.
The collegiate bench said that based on reports by the Taiwan Professional Civil Engineers Association and the Executive Yuan’s Public Construction Commission, the building’s design was flawed, with the builders underestimating the weight per floor and the building’s total weight by 18 percent.
The horizontal force estimated in the event of seismic activity had been scaled down due to the miscalculations, so the number of reinforced concrete beams used per level was insufficient, the collegiate bench ruling report said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The stress levels of the concrete beams were insufficient and the length of the stirrup hooks securing the steel-reinforced bars were substandard, the report read, adding that the connecting joints had not been reinforced with stirrup hooks or the reinforced areas were not secured tightly, causing the entire building to slowly collapse.
Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍), a lawyer who has represented the residents since 2003, yesterday said that the ruling was “merely a formality,” as the companies or individuals charged with paying compensation were either dead, had left the country or cleared their assets.
Cheng said his clients would not receive any money aside from a national compensation of NT$120 million that the residents had settled out of court with the Taipei City Government in 2007.
Although the collegiate bench concurred with previous rulings that Chang, Hsieh and construction overseer Hsu Mao-hsiung (徐茂雄) should pay damages, Chang and Hsieh are dead, leaving Hsieh Wu and Hsu to shoulder the payment.
The court upheld the ruling that Hung Gu Construction president Tu Ming-fu (杜明福) and board members Lin Hsieh Han-chien (林謝罕見) and Lin Hung-ming (林鴻明) need not pay damages, as they were not part of the construction team.
It also exonerated First Bank from any responsibility, saying that the repairs the bank was conducting at the time did not the affect the building’s structural integrity.
Tu reportedly left the country in 2012.
Hsu was sentenced to 18 months in prison for professional negligence.
Additional reporting by CNA
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique