Almost nine years after the collapse of tower six of the Space building in El Poblado, which killed 12 people and opened a shameful chapter for the construction union due to a growing epidemic of sick buildings in the city, the Administrative Court of Antioquia sentenced the signs CDO, its representatives, the curator who put his signature approving the licenses of the frayed building and the Mayor’s Office of Medellín for its non-existent control and surveillance of the work.
Space tower six collapsed on October 12, 2013 due to an inexplicable chain of human errors: there was no control of construction licenses; there was deficiency in the sizing and design of columns, beams and plates, which generated the lack of capacity of the building; and, according to a study by the Universidad de Los Andes, there were inconsistencies in the structural design in relation to the standard.
The Court heard the case after the appeal filed against a sentence of April 26, 2021 of the Eleventh Administrative Court of the Medellín Circuit that had determined that only the construction company and the curator Ruiz were responsible. In its ruling, issued this Wednesday, the Chamber extended the sentence to the CDO representatives and the Municipality for the failures in their duty of supervision.
Consequently, it declared them jointly and severally liable for paying $30,891 million to those affected by the material and moral damages, broken down as follows: $27,255 million for the loss of 41 properties; $3,000 million for the loss of belongings; and $636 million for rent that they had to pay and for others not received.
The sentence determined different responsibilities to those convicted. About Pablo Villegas Mesa, manager of Lérida CDO; Álvaro Villegas Moreno, substitute manager; and Juan José Restrepo Posada and Emilio Restrepo Posada, members of the company’s board of directors, affirmed that they failed to comply with their legal and social duties, “because in the face of the legal presumption of guilt against them, none made any effort to demonstrate diligence and care in order to undermine their responsibility in the facts.”
From the second urban curator of Medellín, Carlos Alberto Ruiz Arango, the ruling indicates him for having endorsed the modifications to the licenses granted by his predecessor and granting permission for new works of stages 4, 5 and 6.
Axa Colpatria, the Previsora Insurance Company, Mapfre and Allianz were also sentenced to pay what corresponds to them for their policies.
The mayor’s fault
According to the considerations of the Court, the Municipality of Medellín omitted, in addition to its functions of surveillance and control of the construction activity, the duty to protect citizens, because by a report generated after a visit in April 2010, it had the opportunity to know the errors in the plans and the poor construction of the building. “However, no activity was carried out in order to obtain said knowledge and take the necessary measures to avoid the disaster. It is concluded then that the Municipality of Medellín had the possibility and should have known the errors in the designs and in the construction that led to the disaster of the building”, added the ruling.
That is why it does not fit in anyone’s head how, after knowing the evident construction flaws and without any management to verify the safety of the construction, the Municipality issued the receipt certificate for stage five on November 22, 2010.
The conclusion of the ruling is devastating: “(The Municipality) could have prevented the collapse and did not, which makes it responsible for the damage caused by such an event (…) Logic and experience indicate that if it had been another the conduct assumed by the administrative authority in the exercise of its functions, the events as they occurred would not have been unleashed.”
Carlos Eduardo Ruiz García, affected and representative of the victims of the construction company CDO, agreed with this recrimination of the Court. He assured that if the Municipality had put fences on the construction license or had exercised its duty of supervision judiciously, the building would not have fallen: “it is a great victory but we still need to know what will happen to the lot. It is also a precedent for all those affected by the rest of the sick buildings. This painful story has not yet been closed.
$7.722
million would have to pay the Mayor’s Office of Medellin after being sentenced by the Court.
23.168
million is the remaining amount to be assumed by the conservator, CDO and their representatives.
THREE OTHER BUILDINGS THAT WERE DEMOLISHED AND THE ONE THAT WOULD BE NEXT
Bernavento, in the Bernal
On June 14, 2018, 48 families saw their dreams come crashing down when 50 kilos of indugel turned all 19 floors of the building where they lived into rubble in five seconds. In 2010, a year after its construction, they began to show serious flaws that were later corroborated by the Dagrd after an inspection of the buildings that had designs by Jorge Aristizábal, the Space calculator. In 2020, the Prosecutor’s Office charged Aristizábal, Jairo Botero and Jorge Aníbal López, because it determined that despite knowing that it was an unfeasible building, they went ahead and sold the project.
Heights of the lake, in Rionegro
The 700 tons fell on May 3, 2019 before the eyes of its 116 owners. Two years earlier it had been evacuated after detecting uncorrectable faults with repowering. The investigation revealed that the building had entire sections of structural elements without a single drop of concrete. In addition, it had received a planning license for 16 floors and they did it for 21. Currently, there is a lawsuit in the evidentiary stage in the 30th Administrative Court of Medellín against the municipality of Rionegro (seriously compromised) and Integral Solutions in civil constructions SAS
Babylon Building, in Itagüí
With a demolition that began on May 24 and ended on September 17, 2019, this building was reduced to rubble. Studies determined that Babylon did not meet 73 percent of the original designs. The characteristics of the structure were altered to lower quality. In November 2020, the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce ordered that the construction company Ruiz Sánchez y Asociados had to return the money to the 35 owners within 15 days. However, despite this process, a complaint in the Prosecutor’s Office for fraud and an administrative lawsuit, they still do not receive their money.
Continental Towers
Next week it will be known whether the building should be demolished and how long it will take to do so given the high risk of collapse. Continental was evaluated in 2013 and that year the last studies were carried out that revealed its infeasibility due to structural problems. With its abandonment the problems for the owners have not stopped. The long list of grievances includes the decision of the Mayor’s Office and Inspection 14 of El Poblado to order them to pay for the surveillance of the failed building, dismantled by thieves and homeless people. Due to the risks of the Continental, the residents of the Interclub, a neighboring building, had to evacuate their homes.
What changed from the first to the second instance of the process?
What precedent marks the condemnation of the Municipality for the lack of control and supervision?