Period For Filing Material And Moral Compensation Lawsuits
WHAT IS A COMPENSATION CASE?
FIRSTLY LET’S LOOK AT THE CONCEPT OF COMPENSATION CASE
In general, these are lawsuits filed by the damaging party in order to compensate the material and moral damages suffered due to tort and breach of contract. However, it is not limited to this and can be filed based on many different legal grounds.
Material Compensation Lawsuit : It is a type of lawsuit filed in order to compensate for the diminution in the assets of the injured party and the loss of profit expected to be obtained due to unlawful and breach of contract.
Moral compensation lawsuit: It is a lawsuit filed in return for the grief, sorrow and spiritual collapse experienced in the spiritual world of persons whose personal rights are violated due to unlawful acts and transactions and breach of contract.
The two lawsuits are usually filed together. Compensation cases can be based on various reasons. Damages arising from divorce, damages suffered due to traffic accidents, dismissal, damages caused by breach of employment contract, such as many more tortious acts and breach of contract.
Material damage is of two types: 1- Actual damage: refers to the decrease in assets
Deprived profit: It refers to the increase that would have occurred in the assets if the wrongful act had not occurred.
As a result of the wrongful act, there may be a decrease or an increase in the assets of the injured person. In this case, the damage is found by deducting the increase in assets from the amount of damage. Suits for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages can be filed by the person who has suffered damage due to tort and breach of contract, and if this person is dead, by his relatives. This lawsuit is filed against the natural or legal person who causes damage with his/her act or transaction. In torts, in addition to the person who directly commits the wrongful act, other persons may have compensation responsibilities within the scope of hazard liability.
For example, in traffic accidents, the driver, operator and owner of the vehicle can be sued together with the insurance company.
Time to file a lawsuit for material and moral damages:
Most of the compensation cases arise from the wrongful act. Here, the statute of limitations is 2 years after the act and the perpetrator are learnt. If the act and the perpetrator are unknown, a long statute of limitations of 10 years is foreseen. However, if the act also constitutes a criminal offence and the statute of limitations for criminal proceedings is longer, the criminal statute of limitations applies.
The statute of limitations for contractual damages is 10 years.
These are the general limitation periods regulated in the Code of Obligations and different periods may be stipulated in special laws.
For example, in divorce cases, material and moral compensation must be filed within 1 year from the finalisation of the decision. In practice, it is usually filed together with the divorce case, which in our opinion is the right thing in terms of preventing loss of rights.
While determining the damage in compensation cases, an evaluation should be made according to the characteristics of the concrete event. While determining the monetary amount to be paid to the injured party, the judge decides on the amount and method of payment by evaluating the necessity of the situation, the gravity of the fault and especially in some cases such as divorce cases, the economic situation of the parties and many reasons arising from the characteristics of the event.
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