CHAPTER II

COMPENSATION FOR WRONGFUL ACTS

 

Section 438.- The Court shall determine the manner and the extent of compensation according to the circumstances and the gravity of the wrongful act.

Compensation may include restitution of the property of which the injured person has been wrongfully deprived or its value as well as damages to be granted for any injury caused.

 

Section 439.- A person who is bound to return a thing of which he has deprived another by a wrongful act is also responsible for the accidental destruction of the thing, or for accidental impossibility of returning it arising from any other cause, or for its accidental deterioration, unless the destruction or the impossibility of returning it or the deterioration would have happened even if the wrongful act had not been committed.

 

Section 440.- If on account of the taking of a thing its value, or, on account of damage to a thing, its diminution in value is to be made good, the injured party may demand interest on the amount to be made good from the time which serves as the basis for the estimate of the value.

 

Section 441.- If a person bound to make compensation for any damage on account of the taking or damaging of a movable compensates the person in whose possession the thing was at the time of the taking or damage, he is discharged by so doing even if a third party was owner of the thing, or had some other right in the thing, unless the right of the third party is known to him or remains unknown in consequence of gross negligence.  

 

Section 442.- If any fault of the injured party has contributed in causing the injury, the provisions of Section 223 apply mutatis mutandis.

 

Section 443.- In case of causing death, compensation shall include funeral and other necessary expenses.

If death did not ensue immediately, compensation shall include in particular expenses for medical treatment and damages for the loss of earning on account of disability to work.   

If on account of the death any person has been deprived of his legal support, he is entitled to compensation therefor.

 

Section 444.- In case of an injury to the body or health, the injured person is entitled to receive reimbursement of his expenses and damages for total or partial disability to work, for the present as well as for future.

If at the time of giving judgement it is impossible to ascertain the actual consequences of the injury, the Court may reserve in the judgement the right to revise such judgement for a period not exceeding two years.