Khaberni - The Abu Dhabi Court for Family, Civil, and Administrative Cases mandated a vehicle driver to pay a delivery worker 30,000 AED as compensation for the material and psychological damages inflicted on him as a result of the defendant colliding with him while driving under the influence of alcohol. The Criminal Court penalized him with a fine of 20,000 AED and suspended his driving license for one year.
In detail, a delivery worker filed a lawsuit against a vehicle driver and an insurance company, demanding that they jointly pay him 100,000 AED as compensation for the material and moral damages resulting from the collision while he was riding a motorcycle, plus an interest rate of 5% per annum from the date of the claim, along with litigation costs, and inclusion of the judgment with immediate enforcement without bail. Meanwhile, the insurance company filed a subrogation action, in which it requested that the first defendant be held liable to the extent of any judgment against her.
The plaintiff stated that the first defendant drove his vehicle under the influence of alcohol, collided with him while he was riding a motorcycle, resulting in his ligament tear, compromising his physical safety, loss of income due to the damaged motorcycle, in addition to bearing medical expenses, alongside psychological harm, and the first defendant was criminally convicted.
He attached as evidence for his lawsuit, photocopies of the accident report, the public prosecution's investigation records, and a copy of the criminal judgment.
The court clarified that what is proven in the criminal case is that the charge against the first defendant is "driving a vehicle on the road while being under the influence of alcoholic beverages," and that by his fault, he damaged two vehicles, rendering them unusable, which resulted from his negligence and non-compliance with traffic laws, and also compromised the physical safety of the victim by carelessly driving, causing the accident and the injuries described in the attached medical reports. The criminal court convicted the accused of driving under the influence of alcoholic beverages, fined him 15,000 AED, and convicted him for the charges (damaging and injuring) due to connection, fining him an additional 5,000 AED, with his driving license suspended for one year, and charging him the legal fees.
The court pointed out that the fault for which the first defendant was convicted is the same fault on which the plaintiff based the present lawsuit. Thus, the criminal judgment has decisively concluded the occurrence of the act constituting the common basis between the criminal and civil suits, and the legal categorization of this act and its attribution to the perpetrator, noting that, according to the civil transactions law, any harm to another person obliges the perpetrator to compensate, and the first defendant's fault (causing a traffic accident) had inflicted moral (feelings of pain, regret, and sadness) and material (compromising the safety of his body and damaging his motorcycle) damages, for which compensation is due.
The court highlighted that it is proven from the unified vehicle insurance document that the company may recover from the insured person and/or the vehicle driver or the responsible person in the event of an accident if it is established that the vehicle driver, whether the insured or another person permitted to drive it, committed the accident while in an abnormal state, due to being under the influence of drugs or consuming alcoholic beverages that impair his control over the vehicle.
The court ruled that the first defendant and the insurance company must pay the plaintiff an amount of 30,000 AED as compensation for the damages incurred, obliging them to cover the lawsuit fees and expenses, rejecting other demands, and in the sub-action, ruling that the first defendant must pay the third party (insurance company) the amount it might pay within the limits of the judgment passed in the suit, including the fees and expenses of the original lawsuit, and requesting to include the subrogation lawsuit within the limits of what it pays to the plaintiff.
