Bern can breathe a sigh of relief after the financial debacle of a major event organizer
Published: Wednesday, Jan 10th 2024, 15:20
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The city of Bern does not have to pay for the costs incurred by a construction company following the financial debacle surrounding an e-car race in 2019. The construction company cannot invoke the builder's lien.
The Bern-Mittelland Regional Court issued a ruling to this effect in the fall, as confirmed by the information service of the city of Bern on Wednesday in a report in the Bern Tamedia newspapers last week.
The Bern E-Prix, which was part of the global car racing series for electric vehicles, was staged in Bern's city center in 2019 at great expense. Shortly afterwards, the organizer went bankrupt. Companies that had worked for the event were left holding the bag.
Building contractor's lien
This included the construction company Marti AG, which had received an order worth over 200,000 francs from the organizer. Marti AG subsequently wanted to recover the uncovered costs from the City of Bern.
The construction company invoked the builder's lien. This right, which is laid down in the Civil Code, gives a craftsman a lien on the property on which he has worked.
The roads on which Marti AG worked for the race belong to the city of Bern, according to the construction company's argument. The city had benefited from the work.
Impact on the whole of Switzerland
For its part, the city of Bern did not consider itself to be at fault. "An event organizer awards contracts to third parties and the city is supposed to be liable? We can't take responsibility for something we didn't sign up to," said Reto Nause, a municipal councillor in Bern at the time.
If the construction company were to prevail with its argument in court, this would be "the death blow" for Bern as an event location, feared Nause. Because in future, companies could hold the city liable for every event that requires work on the city's soil.
Nause feared that such a ruling would not only have an impact on Bern, but on the entire event landscape in Switzerland.
No added value
But it will not come to that. The construction company's work did not represent any added value for the city and was dismantled again after the event. The court of first instance came to the conclusion that the construction lien clause was not applicable in such a case.
Marti AG, for its part, decided not to appeal the ruling. "We prefer to look ahead," the construction company was quoted as saying in last week's article.
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