Petty corruption is very annoying, and for the poor it is often the last straw in the battle for survival. Corrupt taxation and customs harassment cripple businesses but most survive, somehow. The quixotic application of rules of the road is infuriating. But these tests of daily life in the DRC pale in significance in the face of the greatest threat: the courts.
Everyone sues everyone here. For example, a worker on a building site adjacent to our office, (where a private entrepreneur is hoping to make a killing building offices) was electrocuted by touching some razor wire which had been erected on the wall surrounding that property. The razor wire had been made live by a sloppy illegal connection to the main electrical lines in the street, which had somehow shorted onto the razor wire. So, what happens next? The family of the deceased sue us, an American company (presumably of limitless wealth), blaming the death on us. After all, we occupy the plot next door, so why not try?
Another case: participants in one of our training events are being driven home in a hired minibus. It so happens that it had been hired from a Provincial MP – a fact that might have some bearing on the outcome of the case. The vehicle crashes after leaving the road driving at speed, even after the driver had been warned by the passengers that he was going too fast. One of the people is killed, and another is seriously injured. Others suffers cuts and bruises. Although it was not their vehicle or driver, the said American company feels morally bound to assist the seriously injured passenger who is said to have a brain injury. You do not try and treat brain injuries in the Congo, so she is immediately evacuated to South Africa at a cost of $100,000. The fact that once she is there it is discovered that she didn’t have a brain injury, and the whole thing was a misunderstanding, makes matters only worse.
Knowing that the company has enough money to evacuate victims for medical treatment encourages the rest. Others suddenly develop life threatening symptoms and demand evacuation too. The family of the deceased sues us for $5 million. The news spreads, and shortly afterwards we are sued in connection with a totally separate incident, also involving a hired car transporting participants. In that case no one seemed to have had anything but minor injuries: it had happened earlier and they had seemed happy to have received necessary medical care. But once news of the other law suit reached them they sued us for millions as well. The snowball effect is such that at the present time there are four such major cases.
Obviously it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to place liability on us, the American company, in any of these cases. First in line would be the driver, then the owner, then the insurance company, etc. But everyone knows that these either have no money or will not pay up. So we have to spend a fortune on lawyers to defend ourselves, which is very unfair.
In the $5 million case a meeting was arranged with the judge assigned to the case. This is normal practice in the French system.
“I don’t think this matter needs to take us very long,” the judge said. His job is to weigh up the case and decide whether there is any merit in it. He can also act as a mediator between the two sides. We wait for the magic words – “you as defendants have no liability – this case should not proceed to trial.” But he will say no such thing, Indeed such abstruse matters do not concern him today. With an absolutely straight face he asked: “How much are you willing to pay to have the case settled in your favour?”
It’s not just the judges who are untrustworthy. By chance, we discovered that our first lawyer in the $5 million case, was advising the claimant how to draft and maximise the claim. Then he decided to change sides, hoping for a huge contingency fee.
I recently discovered an even more shocking fact. Judges are very poorly paid, but are eligible for bonuses. The bonuses are paid out by the government at the end of the year. These are no criteria against which their performance is to be measured other than that judges who have pleased the government and all its functionaries will receive a substantial reward, while those who have displeased anyone in power, whether in their public or private capacity, will get very little or nothing.
Maybe the law is not an ass, just greedy.
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