After his return from the Tyrolean ski resort, he was in a coma for weeks and is still suffering from long-term effects. Now a man from Baden-Württemberg wants high compensation from the state of Austria.
Vienna – In the dispute over corona infections in the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl, a seriously ill German holidaymaker sued the state of Austria for a total of 90,000 euros in damages.
The hearing before the Vienna Regional Court for Civil Law Matters on Thursday was the first trial of a German plaintiff in connection with the events in Ischgl in March 2020. The accusation: Politicians and authorities had failed to contain the virus. A judgment is expected by the end of the year.
The plaintiff, a man in his mid-fifties from Baden-Württemberg, got Covid-19 symptoms shortly after his return from the popular Tyrolean ski and party resort. According to his lawyer Alexander Klauser, he was in an artificial coma for weeks and still suffers from long-term effects (long covid). “It’s a really serious case,” said Klauser. Due to temporary incapacity for work, the claim was raised from originally 76,000 to 90,000 euros.
As in the first Ischgl trial of a deceased Austrian holidaymaker on September 17, the court did not allow any extended evidence proceedings on Thursday either. From the judge’s point of view, sufficient documents were already available.
Klauser unsuccessfully requested interrogations from Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer and the former Health Minister Rudolf Anschober in order to investigate, among other things, the chaotic mass departure from Ischgl after the sudden closure of the ski resort. State officials argued that the lawsuit under the Epidemics Act was ineffective because it protected public health but was not applicable to individuals.
In total, around a dozen people brought lawsuits against Ischgl. The case of another German will be heard on Friday. dpa
