A court ordered Club El Nogal to pay the family of the Mexican Luis Fernando Campos Yannelli the sum of 2,300 million pesos for being civilly and non-contractually responsible for the man’s death in 2014.
Luis Fernando Campos was a 42-year-old Mexican businessman, who arrived in Bogotá on August 25, 2014 on a business trip and stayed at the room 23 of the El Nogal Club hotel. There he was received and was in the restaurant of the facilities at night, however, in the morning he did not attend the meeting he had scheduled nor was he seen leaving the place, which alerted the club workers, who entered the room and found him unconscious on the bed.
Campos was rushed to the Country Clinic, where he was treated and finally released, so the businessman returned to his hotel room, where he was found dead the next morning. The autopsy indicated that he had died. poisoned by carbon monoxide. Due to this, the family of the Mexican undertook a legal fight against the prestigious club of the city of Bogota.
Thanks to the testimony of the person responsible for the club’s boiler, the authorities learned that site managers knew air ducts needed fixing, but due to the cost that these had and the time that the hotel had to close, they decided not to do it, in addition to the fact that the club did not have the maintenance of the current boilers. In the same way, the authorities determined that the club omitted and covered up some details of the event.
In September 2020, the Third Municipal Civil Court of Bogotá determined the club’s guilt in the death of the Mexican citizen, ordering the payment of 65 million pesos to his family; However, the lawyer requested the sum of one million dollars, arguing that Luis Fernando Campos was the one who provided the livelihoods for his entire family, for which reason the case was in limbo for years.
Until March 26, 2023, according to information from W Radius, the tenth Civil Court of the Bogota Circuit sentenced Club El Nogal to pay the sum of 2,300 million to the relatives of Luis Fernando Campos, after determining that the club is civilly and non-contractually responsible for the death of the Mexican citizen.
The total sum will have to be paid to Luis Fernando Campos Lobo and María de Lourdes Yannelli Alquicira, parents of the mexicanMellisa Campos Vega and Gonzalo Campos Vega, children of Luis Ferdinand.
“In the opinion of this court, the necessary elements are accredited to predicate the existence of civil liability of the defendant entity, because in the first place, the fact attributable to the defendant was demonstrated, which consists of the existence of a hole in the the chimney or the modifications to the chimney due to the installation of a pipe, added to the lack of maintenance of those facilities, at the time of the facts”, is part of the sentence issued by the court.
As it is a first instance conviction, it is neither decisive nor final, so it is expected that the Club El Nogal Corporation appeal this decision.
