AVOCAT NICE INDEMNISATION – Victim compensation and the non-restrictive nature of the “Dintilhac” nomenclature.

Cass. mixte, 25 March 2022, two judgments, no. 20-15.624 and no. 20-17.072

Do the losses of anguish due to imminent death and of waiting and worrying for the next of kin merge with the losses of endured suffering and of affection for the next of kin?

This is the question put to the Court of Cassation.

In two rulings, the Court of Cassation has ruled on whether or not the “Dintilhac” nomenclature is restrictive.

Although there had already been a few openings outside the nomenclature (cf. specific prejudice of anxiety for people exposed to distilbene (Cass. civ. 1, 2 July 2014, no. 10-19.206) or prejudice of unpreparedness (Cass. civ. 1, 3 June 2010, no. 09-13.591)), there was room for doubt.

With these two rulings, the situation has been clarified: the losses of anguish at imminent death and of waiting and worrying for loved ones do not constitute double compensation with the loss of suffering endured.

However, this must be moderated, as the Court states that the autonomy of the imminent death anguish category is accepted due to :

– The victim’s state of consciousness

– The nature and extent of the injuries

– The victim’s survival time.

With regard to the loss of expectation and anxiety of the next of kin, autonomy is conditional on the demonstration of

– A certain nature of the event

– A particular intensity of the event

– Proof of serious injury to or the death of the direct victim.

It is therefore necessary to have a certain degree of specificity in order to include items outside the nomenclature, and even a certain degree of seriousness.

This threshold of seriousness also varies, with the Paris Court of Appeal admitting, in the context of an attack, the anguish of imminent death for a victim who survived the attack.

Finally, it should be noted that although autonomy is accepted, these exceptional items do not exist in the same way as other losses and are commonly referred to by the Court as “specific losses compensated in an autonomous manner”.

Your lawyer will therefore have to fight particularly hard for these items if he hopes to see them upheld.

In any event, Grégory DAMY, a lawyer at the Nice Bar, will help you obtain compensation for all your losses.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.