[Brief facts of the case].
On a certain day in January 2023, Li suffered a traffic accident and was hit by a motor vehicle driven by Chen while walking, resulting in injuries, because Chen did not take the initiative to compensate for the loss, Li sued the people's court, requiring Chen to bear the medical expenses, disability compensation, living expenses of dependents and other losses, and apply for an appraisal of his disability level.
In May 2023, the appraisal agency issued an appraisal opinion, determining that Li's disability reached grade 10, and Li requested that the living expenses of the dependent children be calculated from the date of injury, and Chen proposed that in accordance with the law, the dependents should be included in the disability compensation, and Li claimed the disability compensation, so he should not separately claim the living expenses of the dependents.
[Focus of controversy].
Does disability compensation cover dependants' living expenses?
[Legal basis].
Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases.
Article 16 The living expenses of dependents shall be included in the disability compensation or death compensation.
[Search for similar cases].
Guangdong Provincial High People's Court (2017) Yue Min Shen No. 8863 Civil Ruling.
The retrial applicant, Mattel, applied for a retrial, claiming ......In the second instance, it was determined that the disability compensation corresponded to the one-time disability subsidy in the work-related injury insurance benefits, and the project ...... of the dependents' living expenses should no longer be supported
The Court held that there was a question of whether there was duplication of disability compensation and the living expenses of dependants. In accordance with Article 17 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases.
Paragraphs 1 and 2 stipulate: "The person obligated to compensate the victim for personal injury, all expenses incurred due to medical treatment, and the loss of income due to lost work, including medical expenses, lost work expenses, nursing expenses, transportation expenses, accommodation expenses, hospital meal subsidies, and necessary nutrition expenses." "If the victim is disabled due to injury, the compensation obligor shall also compensate for the necessary expenses incurred by the victim due to the increase in living needs and the loss of income caused by the loss of ability to work, including disability compensation, disability assistive devices, and living expenses of dependents, as well as the necessary expenses, nursing expenses, and follow-up expenses actually incurred due to the care and continuation. "Disability compensation and dependants' living expenses are listed as two separate compensation items, and there is no consolidation or deduction between them. According to Article 4 of the Notice of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Law (Fa Fa 2010 No. 23), which stipulates that "if the people's court applies the Tort Liability Law to hear a civil dispute case, if the victim has dependents, the living expenses of the dependents shall be included in the disability compensation or death compensation in accordance with Article 28 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases". The living expenses of the dependants are included in the disability or death benefits. The inclusion herein is intended to be an inclusion, not an inclusion or a deduction as understood by Mattel. The original judgment was not improper in calculating the disability compensation and living expenses of the dependents payable by Mattel in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases.
Lawyer's Opinion] Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases was adopted at the 1299th meeting of the Adjudication Committee of the Supreme People's Court on December 4, 2003; Since then, it has undergone two revisions in 2020 and 2022. Article 16 of the Amendment 2022 does not provide that the living expenses of dependents should be included in the disability compensation or death compensation, and the provisions related to the inclusion of the living expenses of dependants in the disability compensation were also put forward in the above-mentioned cases.
From the judicial interpretation amended in 2022, it can also be seen that the disability compensation and the living expenses of the dependants have their own clear calculation standards, in which the living expenses of the dependants are included in the disability compensation, which should not be understood as "inclusion or deduction", and from the above cases, it can also be understood that it actually means "joining", and if the victim has close relatives who need to be supported, the loss of living expenses shall be calculated in accordance with the law.
In this case, Chen's claim that the calculation of disability compensation should not be a separate claim for the living expenses of dependents has no basis in law.
The author of this article is lawyer Gao Zhipeng.