Fidelidade Disputes the 125,000 Euro Claim for a Victim's Loss of Life in the Glória Funicular Crash, Arguing the Lift Was Not Highly Reliable
Carris's insurer told a Lisbon court the sum sought by a victim's family is excessive, that courts award 50,000 euros to 90,000, euros and that the case should wait for the criminal inquiry. The family's lawyer calls it an admission.
Fidelidade, the insurer of Lisbon's municipal transport company Carris, has told a court that the 125,000 euros sought for the loss of life of one of the 16 people killed in the Glória funicular crash is "manifestly excessive", and that the funicular could not, at the time, be regarded as a "highly reliable" means of transport. The position is set out in its defence to a civil action at the Tribunal Administrativo de Círculo de Lisboa, first reported by Correio da Manhã on Monday and followed by ECO, Lusa and RTP.
The claim, of about 1.05 million euros, was brought in June by the husband and daughter of a Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa employee who died in the derailment of 3 September 2025. It names Carris, the maintenance contractor MNTC and Fidelidade. We reported the filing at the time; the insurer's answer is the new step.
What Fidelidade argues
- The amount. According to ECO, the insurer says Portuguese courts have set compensation for the loss of life itself at between 50,000 euros and 90,000 euros in similar cases. It says it made the family an offer in line with that case law, and the family turned it down.
- Foreseeability. It disputes the family's claim that the accident was unforeseeable, citing several accidents involving the funicular since 2018. RTP adds that the insurer argued the victim's suffering before death was brief.
- Timing. It wants the civil action suspended until the Public Prosecutor's criminal inquiry is finished, with the claim dealt with inside the criminal case to avoid contradictory rulings.
In a written reply to Lusa, reported by Observador, Fidelidade said a death claim adds up several separate heads of damage, and that its reference to a uniform standard covers only the loss of life, a benchmark courts use so that similar cases are treated equally. That "in no way constitutes a judgement on the value of a life", it said.
The family's response
The family's lawyer, Nuno Pinto Coelho de Faria, told Lusa he received the defence with "perplexity", calling it a "clear and express" admission that the insurer considers the funicular was not reliable. He said the civil claim is independent of criminal liability and need not wait for the investigations. He accused Carris and the insurer of trying to "push everything" towards criminal responsibility, which in some cases can exclude insurance cover.
Where compensation stands
The last overall figures came from Fidelidade on 27 August, as reported by ECO. It had paid or agreed to reimburse about 2.3 million euros in accident-related costs. For the 16 deaths, four settlements had been reached and seven were under negotiation. One case was in court, one was being handled as a work accident with provisional pensions, and three had no final offer yet because of missing documents and foreign legal rules. None of the 24 injured had reached the clinical stability needed for a final assessment.
Lisbon City Council has said Carris's policy with Fidelidade carries 50 million euros of insured capital, Observador reported in July.
What happens next
Offers are proposed by Fidelidade and reviewed by an independent technical commission it set up in September 2025. Under that process the final decision rests with the insurer, and victims can accept, refuse or negotiate a different figure. The court must now decide whether to suspend the case. The causes of the crash are still under investigation: the accident investigator's final report is due near the end of the first quarter of 2027, and Carris plans to replace the funicular with a new installation by 2029.
