Liability in French Law for Damages Caused by Motor Vehicle Accidents

Abstract

APART FROM THE RECENT LAW of December 31, 1951, establishing a guaranty fund (fonds de garantie), to which reference will be made below, French law contains no special provisions ensuring compensation to the victims of motor vehicle accidents. The explanation probably is that, while such accidents have become frequent, there has been available a rule of liability distinctly favorable to the victims, a rule applicable to all accidents involving inanimate things, which the courts have applied to motor vehicles. This rule, predicated upon a presumption of fault as against the custodian (gardien) of the thing, in certain cases reaching liability without fault, was established by the Court of Cassation in order to provide compensation for workmen injured in industrial accidents, in the frequent cases where it was not possible to prove any fault of the employer or of any of his other employees and the Civil Code, as previously interpreted, did not allow judgment against the employer. Article 1384 of the Civil Code states, it is true, that an individual is liable not only for the damage which he causes by his own act (fait), but also for that caused by the act of in his charge. But it is certain that, in the mind of those who drafted the Code, the word things denoted only animals and buildings, against the custodians of which Articles 1385 and 1386 create a presumption of fault. In case of damages caused by other things, Articles 1382 and 1383, which contain the fundamental rule in the matter of civril liability and assume proof of some fault as a basis of liability, remained applicable.