Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 191

Summary: - An action for compensation for personal injury. Its lapse upon the mere passage of three years from the time of the accident. The provisions governing liability for unlawful acts apply to this compensation insofar as they do not conflict with the provisions specifically prescribed by the legislature for compensation for personal injury. The implication thereof. The period that must elapse for that action not to be heard is a limitation period subject to suspension. The reason therefor. The general rule in Article 446 of the Civil Code suspending limitation whenever an impediment exists that makes it impossible for the creditor to claim his right. - An unlawful act constituting a crime entails the existence of criminal proceedings alongside the civil action for compensation. Its effect. The civil action does not lapse unless the criminal proceedings lapse. Separation of the two actions through the injured person's choice of the civil route rather than the criminal route to claim compensation for damage arising from the crime. Its effect. Suspension of the running of limitation in his regard for as long as the right to bring, institute, or proceed with criminal proceedings remains in existence. Termination of those proceedings by a final judgment convicting the offender or by another ground of termination. Its effect. The limitation period for the compensation action resumes running from that date. The reason therefor. The continuing existence of the right to bring, institute, or proceed with criminal proceedings constitutes a legal impediment making it impossible for the injured person to claim his right to compensation. - Criminal proceedings in misdemeanors. Their lapse upon the passage of five years from the day of the commission of the crime. Interruption of the running of the period upon which criminal proceedings lapse. Its means. By accusation, investigation, or trial procedures, or by inquiries undertaken in relation to the accused or of which he was officially notified. Expiration of the limitation period without that having occurred. Its necessary consequence. The lapse of criminal proceedings by passage of time. The implication thereof. Upon that lapse, the impediment that caused suspension of the running of limitation for the injured person's civil action against the person liable ceases to exist. An example of a civil action claiming Sharia-prescribed blood money on the basis of the rules governing compensation for personal injury not lapsing under the three-year limitation period. Rule: It is established—in the jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation—that the provision in Article 63 of the Executive Regulations of the Traffic Law requiring the insurer to cover civil liability for the amount of compensation awarded, and the provision in Article 80 thereof requiring the insurer to pay the compensation amount within ten days from the date of notification to it of the judgment without the slightest delay, do not mean that a judicial judgment must be issued awarding that compensation before the insurer is obliged to pay it in order to be able to recover what it has paid from the insured and the third party responsible for the accident. Rather, they merely mean urging the insurer to pay the compensation amount to the injured person as quickly as possible if a judicial judgment awarding it is issued. Accordingly, there is no legal impediment to determining compensation by agreement between the insurer and the injured person. However, in assessing it, care must be taken that it does not exceed the Sharia-prescribed blood money due and the elements of damage warranting it, in accordance with Articles 221, 230 of the Civil Code. The court hearing the recourse action against the insured or the third party responsible for the accident must, if a dispute is raised before it concerning the appropriateness of the assessment of the agreed compensation, review that appropriateness and ascertain that this compensation does not involve exaggeration or collusion at the expense of the insured and the person responsible for the damage.