Philippe Lesaulnier (42) died when the Granville-registered potting boat he was skippering was sliced in two by the Condor Vitesse in a crash in thick fog. Two other crew members escaped with minor injuries after being plucked from the sinking wreckage of their vessel.
Since then, the case has dragged through various French courts.
In the latest twist, the Court of Cassation, one of the courts of last resort in France, has ruled that in April last year the Caen Court of Appeal was wrong not to consider whether the fishing boat shared some responsibility for the accident.
The case has now been sent to the Rouen Court of Appeal to set the level of compensation again, according to the French newspaper Ouest France.
On 2 February 2015, the Court of Appeal upheld the 18-month suspended sentence and five-year professional ban handed down to the ferry’s captain, Paul Le Romancer, for homicide and causing unintentional injuries.
A marine accident report had earlier revealed that minutes before the collision Mr Le Romancer was talking to colleagues about watching the film Catwoman and failed to notice the blip on their radar warning that the high-speed catamaran was hurtling towards the boat.
The report also concluded that the ferry was travelling too fast in the poor visibility.
When it upheld the sentence, the Court of Appeal also set a temporary compensation level for Mr Lesaulnier’s family and the two sailors to be paid by the captain and the owner of the Vitesse.
In December 2015, setting the final compensation, the court of Coutances ruled that the fishing boat was 25 per cent responsible for the collision. It set compensation at about 122,000 euros for the Lesaulnier family and 410,000 euros for the Enim [a seamen’s welfare scheme] for pensions.
However, in April 2017, the Caen Court of Appeal overturned this, ruling that the ferry was entirely at fault. The court awarded approximately 300,000 euros to the Lesaulnier family, 15,500 euros to the owner of the boat and a total of 10,000 euros to the two sailors.
Mr Le Romancer has argued that the fishing boat’s responsibility should be set at 30%. Neither Mr Le Romancer nor first officer Yves Tournon, who was also sentenced for his part in the crash, still works for Condor.
