Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 197

Summary: - The entitlement of a worker or his heirs to additional compensation from the employer liable for the remaining damage exceeding the lump-sum compensation specified by Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Decision No. 66 of 1983. Its criterion. The damage must arise from the employer's personal fault giving rise to his own liability; this is fault that must be proved, to which the provisions on presumed liability do not apply. An example of the worker's heirs' lack of entitlement to compensation for material and moral damage because of the absence of any personal fault by the employer or his subordinates causing the accident that claimed the life of the person from whom they inherited. Rule: The criterion for the entitlement of a worker or his heirs to additional compensation from the employer liable for the remaining damage exceeding the lump-sum compensation in specified by the aforementioned Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Decision is that the damage must arise from the employer's personal fault giving rise to his own liability; this is fault that must be proved, to which the provisions on presumed liability do not apply. It was established, as previously explained, that the worker's death resulted from the overturning of the vehicle he was driving during and because of work. His heirs did not attribute to the employer or his subordinates any personal fault causing the accident, and the case papers contained no evidence thereof. Their request for an award of compensation for material and moral damage is therefore without foundation. Consequently, the appealed judgment must be set aside insofar as it ordered the appellant company to pay the sum of ten thousand dinars to the worker's heirs as compensation for moral damage, and upheld insofar as it rejected the request for compensation for material damage.