Compensation Assessment for Personal Injury Owing to Extra-Contractual Liability: Case Study on Selected Courts

Abstract

Assessment of compensation for personal injury is an intricate part of the law of extra-contractual liability (torts) since such kind of injury results in loss of a job, part of a body, total permanent disability or death. As personal injury may involve irreparable harm, it challenges courts in quantifying reasonable expenses a victim incurs and determining the amount of disability indemnity. By using decisions of the SNNP and Sidama regional courts together with selected Federal Cassation decisions, this article aims to explore practices of compensation assessment for personal injury. The Civil Code, which applies in federal and state courts, requires assessment of damage and award compensation based on a rule of equivalency. Given the generality of this, courts are facing difficulties in making compensation assessments for extra-contractual wrongs that result in personal injury. The problems are related to quantifying reasonable expenses for treatment, determining the amount of disability indemnity, or deciding which kinds of pecuniary losses are included in and excluded from compensation assessment. These problems have caused arbitrary decisions of the courts for personal injury. Variation also exists among court decisions at various levels in determining the extent of harm a claimant sustains and its corresponding compensation. Lack of detailed provisions contributes to such variation, and this calls for legal reform.