In the event of the death of the injured party, the person claiming liability for property damage is entitled to a pension, compensation or damages. Importantly, the claims listed in Article 446 of the Civil Code - can be claimed jointly (or only some of them).

The Civil Code creates four types of claims, the premise of which is the death of the directly injured party (L. Jantowski [in:]. Civil Code. Commentary, eds M. Balwicka-Szczyrba, A. Sylwestrzak, Warsaw 2022, Article 446):

1) a claim for reimbursement of medical and funeral expenses;

2) a claim for payment pensions calculated in accordance with the needs of the injured person and the earning capacity of the deceased for the probable duration of the maintenance obligation;

3. a claim for payment of an appropriate compensation where there has been a substantial deterioration in the life situation as a result of the death of the deceased his immediate family members;

4. a claim for payment of an appropriate financial compensation for non-material damage.

We have prepared for you a study of issues related to compensation for the death of a person close to you. The regulation of Article 446 § 4 was introduced to the Civil Code in 2008, in response to the previously established judicial practice allowing for the possibility of awarding compensation for the infringement of a personal good in the form of a severance of family ties with a person closest to the deceased. In this case, the claimant asserting such a claim is directly injured by the violation of his or her own personal good.

We will discuss the other claims mentioned above in further articles.

What is compensation for the death of a loved one?

Compensation takes the form of a single monetary payment, which has a compensatory function. The legislator stipulates that the amount of compensation should be appropriate, which means that it should fully reflect the extent of the harm suffered, i.e. the degree of physical and mental suffering, its intensity, duration, irreversibility of consequences and other circumstances that cannot be listed exhaustively. The amount of compensation should be perceptible to the injured person and bring him/her emotional equilibrium, affected by the mental suffering suffered.

The legal construction of compensation awarded on the basis of Art. 446 § 4 implies compensation for non-material damage caused by the irreparable loss of a close relative with whom the claimant had family ties. The primary function of financial compensation for non-material damage is compensatory. Compensation is to compensate for the harm suffered, i.e. all negative feelings, sufferings and mental experiences related to the loss of a close person, which cannot be easily translated into monetary values, is to compensate for the pain caused by the death of a close person and the premature loss of a family member (L. Jantowski [in:]. Civil Code. Commentary, eds M. Balwicka-Szczyrba, A. Sylwestrzak, Warsaw 2022, Article 446).

Compensation should take into account the drama of the experience of the person close to the deceased, the sense of loneliness and emptiness, the moral suffering and mental shock caused by the death of the person close to the deceased, the type and intensity of the bond linking the person close to the deceased, the support of other persons close to the deceased, the age of the person entitled to compensation, the extent to which the person close to the deceased will be able to find their place in the new reality and their ability to accept it, the treatment of the trauma suffered, as well as the age of the person close to the deceased. Compensation should not lead to the enrichment of the victim. It should, however, represent an economically perceptible value and its amount should not be reduced to a symbolic sum.

Who is entitled to compensation for the death of a loved one?

The immediate family members of the deceased. Two elements are important here:

  1. Relatedness;
  2. The closeness of the relationship that the claimant had with the deceased family member.

There is no doubt that this claim is available to the deceased's spouse, parents, siblings, children (including adopted children), grandparents. It should be borne in mind that nowadays more and more relationships are informal.

Is a partner, a cohabiting partner, also entitled to compensation in a situation where, for example, the partner has died in a car accident?

Informal relationships have now become the norm and the courts are adapting their judgements to the current norms of social life. So, the informal partner is also entitled to compensation for death.

From the content of the provision of Article 446 § 4 of the Civil Code, it follows that the concept of family should be understood broadly, given the specificity of the compensation due. It is the court that de facto determines whether or not a person meets the criterion indicated by the legislator, namely whether or not he or she is counted among the closest persons, on the basis of the totality of the circumstances of the case, including in particular the nature of the relations between specific persons.

We have successfully conducted many court cases in the field of personal injury compensation claim and have extensive litigation experience. If you have a problem related to the subject of compensation for the death of a loved one, the insurer has unduly underpaid or you need legal advice, please contact us: sekretariat@krmpk.pl