Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 388

Summary: - Entitlement of the 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 prerequisite: the damage must arise from the employer's personal fault giving rise to his own liability, which is a fault that must be proved and to which the rules of presumed liability do not apply. An example of the worker's heirs not being entitled to compensation for material and moral damage owing to the absence of any personal fault by the employer or his subordinates causing the accident that claimed the life of their predecessor. Rule: The prerequisite for the worker's or his heirs' entitlement to additional compensation from the employer liable for the remaining damage exceeding the lump-sum compensation specified by the aforementioned decision of the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour is that the damage arise from the employer's personal fault giving rise to his own liability, which is a fault that must be proved and to which the rules of presumed liability do not apply. It was established, as explained above, that the worker's death resulted from the overturning of the vehicle he was driving during and because of work. His heirs attributed no personal fault to the employer or his subordinates that caused the accident, and the papers contained no evidence thereof. Their request for an award of compensation for material and moral damage is therefore unfounded. Accordingly, the appealed judgment must be reversed 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 affirmed insofar as it dismissed the claim for compensation for material damage.