Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 1016

An action for liability for an unlawful act. Three-year prescription begins from the date of actual knowledge whereby the injured party becomes aware of the occurrence of the damage and the identity of the person responsible for it. Reason therefor. The lapse of three - 198 - Obligation years from the day knowledge of both matters is established. Entails the injured party's relinquishment of his right to compensation against the responsible person. Such relinquishment may not be presumed in the case of conjectural knowledge. - Ascertaining the injured party's knowledge of the occurrence of the damage and the identity of the person responsible for it. A factual matter within the exclusive province of the trial court. Condition therefor. - The contested judgment's inference that the heirs did not learn of the person responsible for the damage until the date they inspected their predecessor's treatment records after the court authorised them to do so, and that they brought the action before three years had elapsed from the date of their knowledge, and its correct rejection of the plea of three-year prescription. Its reliance, in rejecting the plea, on the action having been brought before fifteen years had elapsed from the date of the predecessor's injury. An erroneous legal proposition that the Court of Cassation may correct without quashing the judgment.