The Supreme Court clarified in which cases the amount of damages should be reduced

The main thing is that the harm was not caused intentionally.

The circumstances in which the amount of a civil claim can and should be reduced have been clarified. The necessary clarification was made by the Supreme Court, having considered the case of a citizen, from whom the regional branch of the Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation asked to recover 612 thousand rubles.

In October 2019, Irina (names have been changed) became the culprit of an accident: she hit a woman, causing serious bodily harm. Alexandra, who suffered, almost completely lost her ability to work for six months. A trial was held, as a result of which the criminal case was dismissed due to the reconciliation of the parties. Irina voluntarily paid her 150,000 rubles as compensation for non-pecuniary damage. and compensated for material damage in the amount of 96.4 thousand rubles. In addition, Irina’s insurance company paid Alexandra another 355 thousand rubles.

But the story didn’t end there. The injured Alexandra worked as a janitor, and at the time of the accident, she was on duty. The Social Insurance Fund agreed with the leaders of the organization where the victim worked that it was an accident at work. The broom worker was paid a hefty insurance policy. It included temporary disability benefits, monthly insurance payments, payment of additional expenses for medical care and for a support cane, a total of 612,298 rubles. The FSS decided to recover this entire amount from Irina as compensation for harm and went to court. For a woman, it was like a bolt from the blue. In court, she said that she had already paid a significant amount as a result of the criminal case. In addition, she constantly visited Alexandra in the hospital, bought her medicines at her own expense, after her recovery organized her transportation home from the hospital, and hired a nurse. However, the court of first instance took the side of the fund and decided to recover the amount they demanded.

The appeal and cassation left the verdict unchanged. But the Supreme Court did not agree with their opinion. The highest instance indicated that the courts had every reason to reduce the amount of damages. The Civil Code states that this can be done taking into account the property status of a citizen, which is rather difficult for Irina. She works as a teacher, one brings up two minor children, one of whom is visually impaired. She herself is a group III disabled person, suffering from an oncological disease that arose immediately after the accident due to moral feelings and physical exertion associated with caring for Alexandra. For two oncological operations (the cost of each is 390 thousand rubles), she spent all her own and her savings and the savings of her mother. All this, as well as the fact of transferring significant funds to Alexandra, are sufficient grounds for reviewing the case. The decisions of all three courts were canceled, the case was sent for a new trial to the court of first instance.