Moroccan Railway Ordered to Pay $2,000 for Chronic Train Delays

A trainee lawyer practicing in Casablanca, he is enrolled in a doctorate in law and development at the Faculty of Legal Sciences in Meknes, reports the Hespress website. The latter details in the conviction of which Telquel claims to have a copy that he was penalized several times in his work due to the repeated delays of the trains. The plaintiff had estimated his damage at 80,000 dirhams.

The complaint was very well prepared as the lawyer referred to several articles of law, particularly those governing the commercial relationship between a customer and a company, in this case a public company. We can cite Article 443 which stipulates that "The transport contract is the agreement by which the carrier undertakes, for a price, to have a person or a thing reach a certain place".

Article 479, for its part, emphasizes that "if the departure is delayed" or if the "delay is abnormal", the passenger is entitled to damages. Even better: "when, because of the delay, the passenger no longer has an interest in completing the journey, he has the right to resolve the contract or to repeat the price of the transport he has paid."

In its defense, the ONCF argued that the delays caused were "normal" since there were works on the tracks. Unfortunately for the railway company, its arguments were rejected, the administrative court ordered it to pay the plaintiff 20,000 dirhams.