Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 204

Summary: - Lack of awareness or discernment. Does not preclude the liability of the person concerned to compensate for the damage caused by his wrongful act. Article 227, Civil Code. - Establishment, by a criminal judgment, of the correctness of attributing to the appellant the fabrication of indecent images using a computer and their circulation through a website. His reliance on the exclusion of his criminal liability for lack of awareness or discernment does not preclude his liability to compensate for the damage caused by his wrongful act. The complaint that the challenged judgment disregarded the binding authority of the criminal judgment is without foundation. Rule: It is established that the import of the second paragraph of Article 227 of the Civil Code—as disclosed by the Law’s Explanatory Memorandum—is that lack of awareness or discernment does not preclude the liability of the person concerned to compensate for the damage caused by his wrongful act. Accordingly, since the challenged judgment based its order requiring the appellant to pay the provisional compensation awarded on the binding authority of the judgment rendered in Criminal Case No. ... of 2009, Investigations Misdemeanours, upheld by the judgment rendered in Appeal No. ..... of 2011, Misdemeanour Appeals, which convicted him of offending the respondent by fabricating images of her contrary to public morals using a computer and circulating them, it correctly applied the law. This is not undermined by the appellant’s contention that it disregarded the binding authority of Criminal Judgment No. 71 of 2009, Investigations Misdemeanours, rendered concerning the same incident and ruling out his criminal liability on a date preceding the aforementioned criminal judgment. The first criminal judgment does not conflict with the second criminal judgment as regards the correctness of attributing the incident to the appellant, and its ruling that he was not criminally liable does not preclude his liability to compensate for the damage caused by his wrongful act. Consequently, the complaint made against the challenged judgment in the ground of appeal is without foundation.