2023-10-12 11:47:00
It is his descent into hell that he chose to tell the DH story regarding. The testimony is edifying. Courts, lawyers, experts, insurers, bailiffs, banks, Bernard Defoy spares no one.
Xantia vs Pajero
A well-known restaurateur in Rochefort, he ran Le Pitch, rue de la Libération, near Aldi. It is April 5, 1997, a Saturday. It’s 11 p.m. With four passengers, including his wife, Bernard, who has just closed, returns to Marche-en-Famenne, via the Jemelle road. The tragedy occurs near the velodrome. Suddenly a large 4×4 arrives in front of him. The 4×4 drives with its headlights off in the left lane. Xantia can’t avoid it, the front end is terrible. As if they had hit a concrete wall at 118 km/h.
The frontal was terrible. As if they had hit a concrete wall at 118 km/h. ©DH
How they escaped alive cannot be explained. Alive but seriously injured. At the front, Bernard and his wife were the most seriously affected. He escaped with broken ribs and a shattered sternum, very damaged organs like the kidney and spleen, a fractured nose, a pneumothorax, and major diaphragm problems: “I lost 60% of my respiratory capacity . Even today, it hurts just from sitting down.”
Bernard escaped with broken ribs and a shattered sternum, very damaged organs such as his kidney and spleen, a fractured nose, a pneumothorax, and major diaphragm problems. ©DR
1.63 grams/liter
The driver of the Nissan Pajero escaped without any scratches. “When he got out of the Pajero, his first thought was to check his headlights and, seeing that he was driving without having them on, to return to his vehicle.”
In criminal matters, responsibilities are quickly established. The driver was driving with a blood alcohol level of 1.63. He was driving in the wrong lane without turning on his headlights. He got away with a fine and two months of withdrawal.
Unquestionably in law.
In civil matters, Bernard Defoy was convinced that compensation would follow without causing any problems. He was wrong.
Restaurant
In the meantime, his left lung had to be removed. With 75% disability, he continues to follow several physiotherapy and rehabilitation sessions each week. The suffering does not leave him.
In addition to the considerable physical, moral and psychological damage, both for him and for his wife, there is enormous financial damage. “The Pitch” which marched with thunder did not survive. Despite the efforts, the restaurateur ended up having to hand over the establishment. “Suppliers, banks and insurers have not given me any favors.”
Bernard was 47 years old. He is 72 and here he is overwhelmed by resentment, rage and anger. “They got my skin”
Specialized
Bernard Defoy does not spare his lawyers “specialized in victim compensation”. “That’s what they said. Of the six, five were not good. I had one who was so bad that he even had himself crucified in full court by the president of the court: “Master, I am arresting you. Your client is entitled to compensation but because of you, I will have to refuse it to him.”
Bernard Defoy had already paid him 38,000 euros in provisions. “When I told him that I no longer wanted him, he took me to court to demand payment for what he was going to lose by my giving up his services. The worst part is that the court ruled in his favor and I had to pay 88,000 euros in addition to the 38,000 he had already received.
Courts
Bernard Defoy contacted an association supposedly providing assistance to victims. “I met crooks there who, in reality, exploit people’s misfortunes,” he says. He has put together a whole file on this non-profit organization to avoid.
The ushers ! People without feelings. He remembers the attitude of those who came to seize his car and his furniture, one day when he and his wife were in the thirties.
The mutual societies did not hesitate to demand restitution of compensation either.
Finally, he expected justice to take on a human face. “I have spent countless hours in the courts and seen how it works. In the end, people of justice agree among themselves. It’s inevitable. In the provinces, judges and lawyers frequent the same circles. They rub shoulders at cocktails. Magistrates started as lawyers. When we find ourselves in the courts having to wait for a result, we feel the influences once morest which we can do nothing.”
The lawyers
Twenty-six years following the accident, Bernard Defoy estimates having been compensated for less than half of the real, physical, financial and other damages incurred. “Trust,” he said, “is worn out.”
Compensation was paid to him. Of these, he calculates that 215,000 euros went into the lawyers’ pockets. At present, he is still paying bailiffs treatment costs for ten years ago. Which would not have been the case if the courts had ordered the insurer to pay the sums due in full and directly to the hospitals in view of their client’s liability. And yet, he was right!
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