The eleven involved will thus assume the compensation that Renfe had to pay to the passenger for breaching the punctuality commitment
MADRID, 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A court in Madrid has sentenced eleven men who were celebrating a bachelor party on board a Madrid-Málaga AVE to pay Renfe 7,676 euros, at a rate of 697.82 euros each, for the delay they caused by refusing to leave the train at Córdoba station after behaving “uncontrollably” in the train cafeteria.
As reported on Monday by the railway operator, the Court of First Instance number 43 of Madrid has estimated the lawsuit filed by Renfe and condemns these eleven people to pay the company in full the 7,676 euros that it had to pay to 216 travelers as compensation for failing to comply with its punctuality commitment, since the AVE arrived in Malaga 23 minutes late.
The events occurred on July 6, 2018, when the eleven young people involved, who were celebrating a bachelor party on board the AVE Madrid-Málaga, “increasingly disturbed order inside the train, shouting, singing and hitting the walls of the train, ignoring the instructions and calls for attention from Renfe staff”.
Faced with this behavior, the controller, by virtue of article 90 of the Railway Sector Regulations, which empowers him to alight passengers who disturb order or endanger transport safety, asked Renfe Security to evict the group.
Once the train arrived at the stop in Córdoba, where it paused for 15 minutes, “the defendants took the opportunity to definitively escalate their particular party in the train’s cafeteria, where they were drinking, dancing, singing and shouting at full volume and in a totally uncontrolled way,” the sentence states.
After the refusal of these people to leave the train, the inspector had to call the National Police and it was a staff from this Corps that finally managed to get the eleven involved to get off the train. In this sense, the ruling considers it proven that what determined the delay was “the need for the help of the National Police to get the co-defendants to get off the train.”
For this reason, the Court considers that the civil liability of the defendants has been proven and exempts Renfe from concurrence of blame, since it is not “obliged to hire security personnel, nor can it close the cafeteria to the detriment of other travelers, nor can it determine , at the time a train ticket is purchased, if travelers intend to hold an event inside the AVE”.
In the act of trial, Renfe ratified the certification of the returned tickets and their amount, which amounted to 7,676 euros. The ruling establishes a joint sentence between the eleven participants in the bachelor party for reasons of legal certainty and given the interdependence of behaviors.
Renfe has assured in a statement that it is aware of the increase that has occurred in this type of travel on AVE trains in recent years and of the inconveniences that the behavior of some groups generates for the rest of the passenger.
“The company has been and will continue to be forceful with behaviors that alter the trip”, assured Renfe, adding that it will resort to the State Security Forces and Bodies when serious cases of disturbance of public order occur. and will denounce these behaviors and their consequences on the rest of the passenger and on the company itself before the courts.
