Roma Capitale, citizens exposed to noise and fine dust must be compensated

Damages, including moral ones, to the citizens forced to endure acoustic pollution and the emission of fine particles that exceed the legal thresholds. In addition to compensation, Roma Capitale will have to set upsoundproof barriers and place aspeed limit of 30 kilometres per hour in at-risk areas. The Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal by the Campidoglio against the sentence, handed down in second instance, which obliged the administration to pay damages, material and otherwise, to the inhabitants of the Foro Italico, an area close to the Tangenziale est, who had appealed to the court to assert their right to to live in a healthier environment, in the name of the right to respect for private and family life, also guaranteed by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. An effective lance - in favour of the inhabitants of the high traffic area - is actually only broken by the appeal judges. In the first instance, in fact, the court had only considered the compensation of EUR 2,000 for each plaintiff as sufficient. While the judge at first instance had left it up to the house owners to equip their flats with self-ventilating windows.

The Court of Appeal took a different view, recalling the public administration's obligation to 'do'. The second instance judges have, in fact, established that Roma Capitale will have to set up sound-absorbing barriers, as neither self-ventilating windows nor current devices are suitable. In addition, the speed of the cars on the stretch affected by immissions found, following an expert's report, to be higher than the norm, must be reduced to 30 km per hour. Instead, the speed is reduced and the compensation for noise and fine dust is increased to 10,000 euros for each claimant, including heirs. A compensation that includes both material and non-material damages. A conclusion reached, thanks in part to the surveys carried out by Arpa, in the neighbouring area of Corso Francia.

The Supreme Court emphasises that Roma Capitale's order 'to take appropriate measures to ensure that the speed limit of 30 km/h is placed on the stretch of road affected by the emission of fine dust' is a measure taken pursuant to Article 2058 of the Civil Code. And this is because in the case of intolerable immissions, depending on the failure of the Public Administration, the latter may "be condemned to pay damages, as well as the 'facere' necessary to bring the said immissions below the threshold of normal tolerability, since such claims do not concern - per se - authoritative and discretionary acts, but rather a material activity subject to the principle of 'neminem laedere'".