[Abstract]
Damages in Companion Animal Tort Case
SON, YOUNG SIL
Department of Law
The Graduate School of Korea University
Supervised by KIM, JE WAN
Under the Korean Civil Code pet animals are regarded as personal properties. Therefore damage claim...
[Abstract]
Damages in Companion Animal Tort Case
SON, YOUNG SIL
Department of Law
The Graduate School of Korea University
Supervised by KIM, JE WAN
Under the Korean Civil Code pet animals are regarded as personal properties. Therefore damage claims arising from pet's injury or death shall follow basic principles of personal property tort. Under these principles,, describing in the Korean Civil code, when a defendant has broken a plaintiff's personal property, he shall compensate the repair cost. However the cost exceed too much the exchanging market value of the property, the compensation amount shall be reduced to the market value. Following the Korean tort principle, a plaintiff whose pet was injured by a defendant's negligence, he shall be compensated with a pet's veterinarian fees. However when the fee exceeds too much the pet's market value, the compensation amount shall be reduced to the market value. But it is unreasonable when a the owner have a pet without any transactions for example, one of his or he friend sent a pet as a gift. In this case he or she can not prove the market value.
Korean personal property tort law shall not acknowledge the compensation of pain and sufferings or emotional distress of the owner of the property. Therefore a pet's owner shall not be compensated on his or her pain and sufferings or emotional distress resulting from his or her pet's injury or death caused by tortfeasor's intentional or negligence action.
According to a 2015 research, the 21.8% of Korean homes have raised pet animals. Koreans nowadays have recognized pet animals as a one of his or her family members. Pet animals are far different from ordinary personal property because they can communicate with and exchange emotions with their owners. In recent pet tort cases several Korean districts courts have decided that the defendant shall compensate veterinarian fees exceeding market value of the pet. Even some court have decided that the defendant be compensate the pain and sufferings of plaintiff whose pet was dead by defendants intentional or negligence action.
To correct discrepancy between tort law principles and real practice, the Special Act focusing on damage issues related with pet shall be enacted. Under the Special Act a pet shall be treated as quasi-person which shall be different from personal property and be governed by more legal protection. To provide more precise protection for pet animals, the definition provision of pet animal and owner of the pet animal shall be included in the Special Act. the Special Act shall describe actual value compensation which exceeding market value in pet tort case. Pain and sufferings or emotional distress of the owner of pet animal shall be included as compensated damages, however it is appropriate that the Special Act shall describe about 10,000 USD as a cap of the compensation following other countries' legislations.