The Taipei District Court on Wednesday ruled that Taipei Dome contractor Farglory Group should compensate the Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs NT$758,417 (US$23,933) for lost rent income after it damaged the Songshan Tobacco Factory when building the Dome complex.
The department said that subsidence has occurred at the foundation of a boiler room at the historic site due to improper construction work performed by Farglory, leaving Taiwan-based Mitsui Style Co, which had expressed its desire to use the factory to house its offices, unable to rent it, the verdict said.
The department demanded compensation of NT$2.46 million from Farglory for the rent it had been forced to forgo, it said.
However, as Farglory in July 2014 discovered a structure potentially possessing historic value while carrying out excavation work at the factory, the court had asked the department to inspect the structure and propose plans to renovate it, the verdict said.
The department has yet to reply regarding the historic structure, it added.
The court therefore rejected the department’s demand that Farglory compensate it NT$1.67 million in rent income that would have been generated from July 2014 to March, as the court deemed it improper to attribute the losses during this period to Farglory.
Furthermore, as the department had charged Mitsui Style NT$37,920 in royalties for the company’s plan to use the boiler room, the amount was also deducted from the sum the department demanded from Farglory.
The ruling can be appealed.
The department has placed commercial gains before cultural heritage, as it only demanded that Farglory compensate for the rent, but ignored the damage the corporation had done to the historic site, said Songshan Tobacco Factory Tree Protection Union convener Arthur Yo (游藝), who is a long-time opponent of the Dome project.
The department had filed two charges against Farglory, Department Chief Secretary Liu Te-chien (劉得堅) said, adding that Wednesday’s ruling was the result of civil action against the corporation over the loss of rent.
He said that the department had lodged another suit against Farglory for damaging the site, which is a breach of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法).
However, the department had not demanded any compensation from Farglory over the damages, he said, adding that the punishment would likely be a prison term that could be commuted to a fine.
Farglory has been repairing the damage it caused at the tobacco factory, Liu said, adding that repair work on the boiler room is close to completion.
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