| An American lawyer warms his hands on the tragedy in Kaprun, Austria Austria will soon be in trouble. The famous American lawyer Ed Fagan volunteered to defend the rights of relatives of the victims of the tragic cable car fire in the Alpine Kaprun. Not long ago, Fagan became famous for extorting billions of marks from the German government and private businesses to pay compensation to victims of forced labor during the war. In April of this year, he took on a similar case against Austria, setting the amount of compensation for former Nazi slaves at $18 billion. This is exactly the same amount he originally billed to Germany, a country with ten times the population. However, in addition to the fact that the Austrian public does not feel remorse in connection with the injustice committed by German Nazism, the current government in Vienna stated in response to Fagan's claims that if they were satisfied, the government would have to declare Austrian state bankruptcy.
The disaster on Mount Kitzsteinhorn, which claimed 155 lives, brought operational changes to the American lawyer's Vienna plans. Before local rescuers had time to begin lifting the corpses to the surface, Fagan gave a signal through the Austrian press. “If there are relatives and friends of the victims who believe that I could help them in satisfying their claims,” the lawyer said while still overseas, “then I am at their service.” Fagan's lawyer's "technique" always boils down to maximum promotion of the case through the media: in as noble a hotel as possible, a motley crowd of reporters gathers, in front of which Fagan hurls thunder and lightning at the next blatant injustice. And then he disappears and carries out his legal work with the powerful support of a scandal that has flared up in the press.
This time Fagan spoke mournfully of an “incredible catastrophe.” And he explained the arithmetic of his legal services using specific numbers. In Austria, Fagan claims, the heirs of the victims of the Kaprun disaster will be able to count on receiving compensation of no more than 250 thousand dollars. If a lawsuit regarding the incident is filed in the United States, then, as he is sure, it will be no less than $5 million for each tragically burned person. For Fagan himself, the case has probably already burned out: he already has a mandate to protect the interests of approximately 20 families of the victims.
However, journalists unanimously assessed the “help” of the overseas well-wisher as “an outrage against good morals,” caused only by concern for one’s own wallet. For many, the question also remains a mystery: why on earth are American courts authorized to conduct investigations into the circumstances of an accident in Austria? However, this is why Ed Fagan is considered a lawyer of international class. “I am confident that American justice will take up this case,” he is convinced, “if at least some structural unit or part of this cable car was made in America.” Yuri Shpakov, Berlin |
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