One of the basic functions of civil law is to regulate the settlement of relations between individuals in situations where someone is harmed. Whoever violates his duty and interferes with the rights of another must compensate him for the damage caused. The obligation to compensate applies to both pecuniary (damage) and non-pecuniary damage. Causing property damage is usually fairly straightforward – if your neighbour’s goat chews your cucumbers, you are entitled to compensation for the damage caused. However, non-pecuniary damage is often more complicated, as it is not only difficult to quantify, but also difficult to determine in which cases it should be compensated. Today we will look at examples from the courts’ decision-making practice in which situations the right to compensation for non-pecuniary damage arises.
According to § 2971 of Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code (hereinafter referred to as the “Civil Code“), if the special circumstances in which the wrongdoer caused the injury by an unlawful act justify it, in particular if he or she has grossly negligently breached an important legal obligation or if he or she intentionally caused the injury out of a desire to destroy or harm or out of any other particularly reprehensible motive, the wrongdoer shall also compensate the non-pecuniary injury to anyone who feels it as a personal misfortune that cannot otherwise be remedied.
Thus, if someone breaches his duty in such a way that another suffers personal misfortune, he has a duty to make amends, provided that special circumstances are present. These circumstances include, in particular, cases where an important legal obligation has been breached intentionally or through gross negligence. This is a provision with the so-called. a relatively vague hypothesis – it is not entirely clear from the text itself what exactly is meant by “important legal obligation” and to which cases the provision applies.
According to the Supreme Court, an important legal obligation within the meaning of section 2971 of the Civil Code is, for example, the obligation to build on the basis of a building permit, as provided for in the Building Act. If someone builds “illegally” and thus prevents neighbours from participating in the statutorily prescribed construction procedure and exposes them to the undesirable effects of black construction, he is obliged to compensate them for the non-pecuniary damage incurred on the basis of Section 2971 of the Civil Code. In the decision sp. marked. 25 Cdo 1131/2019, [R 60/2022 civ.] The Supreme Court upheld compensation for non-pecuniary damage in the amount of CZK 500,000 to a plaintiff whose injury was caused by the construction of a house “on the sly” in his immediate neighbourhood.
Furthermore, according to the Supreme Court, an obligation to compensate for non-pecuniary damage arises, for example, in the event that a lawyer breaches his duty and intentionally conceals this fact from his client (cf. Case No. 25 Cdo 1907/2021). In this case, the client lost the lawsuit due to the attorney’s misconduct (failure to appear at the hearing). The lawyer concealed the reason for his failure in the dispute from his client. The reason for the compensation for non-pecuniary damage was that the lawyer’s conduct kept the client under stress for several years and in the belief that it was impossible to achieve a fair trial in the Czech Republic.
In another case, the Supreme Court held that the prerequisites defined in Section 2971 of the Civil Code may also be caused by interference with property rights, in which case the obligation to compensate for non-pecuniary damage arises (cf. Case No. 25 Cdo 3484/2023). In this case, the will was forged. Although this was an interference with property rights, the collateral consequences were long-term stress, frustration, personal unhappiness and damage to family relationships between the real heirs. The courts therefore found an obligation to compensate for the non-pecuniary damage caused by the defendant’s conduct.
If you would like more information in this regard, please do not hesitate to contact us.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or guidance for any particular case.