Compensation for severe bodily injury of a claimant's relative : commentary on the Supreme Court judgment of 27th March 2018, III CZP 60/17

This paper analyses the judgment of the Polish Supreme Court of 27th March 2018, III CZP 60/17 - the judgment is a response (preliminary ruling) of the seven-judge panel to the legal questions that were raised in a case pending before a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court. In the judgment, the Supreme Court held that relatives of a severly injured person could be awarded compensation for violation of their family bond. The commentary concurs with the Supreme Court's conclusion that a family bond should be recognised as a personal interest, despite some contrary legal opinions. The primary issue in the case was whether a family bond can be broken only by the death of a family member or also by his/her severe bodily injury. To answer that question, the author examines the relation between Art. 448 and Art. 446 § 4 of the Polish Civil Code and the bounds of the claims under those two provisions. Finally, the paper concludes that the family bond can be broken if, as a result of an injury, it is not possible to maintain normal relations among family members. The author also argues that the term 'family member' should not be limited to family members in the legal sense but should also include other persons. Those persons should be determined on a case-by-case basis by examining special and strong bond that could be classified as "family bonds"