The Court of Cassation is to decide whether a state duty shall be paid in the case of a claim for compensation for moral damage
16:30, July 4, 2018 | News, Own news
The Court of General Jurisdiction of Armavir Region refused to admit the claim for compensation for moral damage submitted by the legal successor of four-year-old Karine, who passed away at Armavir Medical Center in 2015.
On September 20, 2017, the legal successor of the deceased child and the representative of the successor Ani Chatinyan, who is an advocate at HCA Vanadzor, filed a claim with the court for compensation for moral damage in the amount of 15,000,000 AMD against Anahit Petrosyan, the doctor charged with causing the child’s death, and the RA Government.
The Court refused to admit the claim due to the state duty not being paid despite the fact that under the RA Law on State Duty, in the case of a claim for compensation for damage caused by a crime, the claimant shall be exempted from state duties. The Court supported its standpoint by arguing that the law refers to claims for compensation for material damage.
The Civil Court of Appeal of the RA expressed the same standpoint in its decision rendered on December 18, 2017 and rejected the appeal against the first instance decision.
On January 8, 2018, HCA Vanadzor advocate Ani Chatinyan, who is the representative of Karine Hovhannisyan’s legal successor Hakob Hovhannisyan, filed a cassation appeal against the decision rendered by the RA Civil Court of Appeal on December 18, 2017. The cassation appeal was supported by the fact that the claimant demanded compensation for damage, and, under the RA Criminal Procedure Code, “damage” means moral, physical or property damage.
The aforementioned provision presupposes that moral damage should also be understood in the light of the term “damage,” as the legislator also considered moral damage under the term “damage.”
In the given case, the damage caused is moral, and placing it beyond the scope of having the privilege of being exempted from state duties and not admitting the claim on that ground is in violation of the right to an effective remedy of legal protection enshrined in the Convention on Human Rights and the RA Constitution and the right to compensation for damage enshrined in the RA Constitution.
Ani Chatinyan also referred to the precedents of admitting claims for compensation for moral damage without state duties being paid and then concluded that the courts do not demonstrate a uniform approach.
On June 14, 2018, the RA Court of Cassation admitted the appeal.
Prior to that, on December 14, 2017, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Armavir Region upheld in part the claim for compensation for material damage to be provided to the victims and decided to confiscate 890,000 AMD from Doctor Anahit Petrosyan in favor of Hakob Hovhannisyan.