A Taipei court handed prison terms to five people over the 2023 building sinking in Da-zhi that damaged neighboring homes — bad news for the developer Chi Tai and its contractors, and a rare case of construction bosses facing jail.

• The site manager got the heaviest sentence, 4 years and 10 months; the site supervisor got 2 years and 8 months.
• A Chi Tai company employee got 8 months, the project inspector 1 year suspended, and the engineer 10 months.
• Prosecutors found the work did not follow the approved plans and that monitoring data was repeatedly adjusted to dodge complaints from neighbors.
• Warnings from the monitoring system were ignored, and the inspection steps were done for show, so nothing caught the problem in time.

Outlook: All five can appeal, so the case is likely headed to a higher court.