COURTS
State liability in the event of a riot

In August 1919, in the midst of the tobacco crisis, while smokers were queuing outside the shops, a shopkeeper, Mr. Auzard, had the unfortunate idea of ​​defending a woman selling wine on the Boulevard de Charonne. The crowd rioted against him. To such an extent that, as a precaution, the officers had the shop closed. A few moments later, Mr. Auzard reached the street through the skylight, was soon recognized and chased, shouting "Death to you." Having taken refuge in a malt shop, he tried to escape by climbing over a wall and, in his fall, he broke both legs.

Relying on the 1914 law which makes the State and the municipalities responsible for repairing damage caused by riots, Mr. Auzard sued the State and the City of Paris for damages. He was dismissed by the first chamber of the court, which ruled that "the accident had been caused by his inopportune intervention

The first chamber of the court, on the pleadings of Mr Henry Torrès and Mr Guilain, and the conclusions of the attorney general Godefroy, yesterday reversed this judgment. Considering that the responsibility for the accident was shared, the injured person having been imprudent on the one hand, and the security service having been insufficient on the other, it placed two-fifths of the total damage suffered by Mr Auzard on the State's charge.