How should we ocmpute the amount of compensation for one's damages in the case of his injury or death which is caused by another person's tort such as a traffic accident or a criminal act?
In regard of this issue, the civil law of Korea only stipulat...
How should we ocmpute the amount of compensation for one's damages in the case of his injury or death which is caused by another person's tort such as a traffic accident or a criminal act?
In regard of this issue, the civil law of Korea only stipulates that the wrongdoer, he who commits a tort, should compensate for the damage ordinarily resulting from the tort concerned' by converting it into money, without stipulating that what it is and that what the standard of the conversion is.
As a result, we cannot bring this issue to a settlement without depending on a theory In the present theory and case law of Korea, the amount of compensation is computed according as how much income the victim loses as a result of his injury or death which is caused by the tort concerned.
By the way, the income which the victim loses by the tort concerned is not what he has at present, but what he could earn in due sequence in the future if he were not injured or dead. Hence, to compensate for the loot future income at present, it is necessary to compute the present value of the lost future income.
As a formula for this computation, the Hoffmann's method of computation is widely used in judicial practice.
But this method contains several contradictions and is unreal and unreasonable. In fact, this method is unfair in the sense that it makes wrondoer give the victim too much.
Therefore, to correct these contradictions involved in the Hoffmann's method, we should adopt more reasonable method, and I assert that the Leibnitz's mehtod of computation should be adopted as a more reasonable method.
If we adopt the Leibnitz's mehtod, we can avoid all contradictions involved in the Hoffmann's method and we can be fair to both parties by compensating for the exact amount of the victim's lost future income.