Khaberni - The Al Ain Court for Civil, Commercial, and Administrative Claims ruled that a young man must return to a girl an amount of 24,800 dirhams, which she had transferred to him by mistake, and he negotiated with her to pay the amount in installments.
The court also ruled that the defendant must compensate the plaintiff for the material and moral damages she suffered, in the amount of 3,000 dirhams.
In detail, a girl filed a legal lawsuit against a young man, demanding that he returns the amount transferred to him by mistake, and obliging him to pay her 5,000 dirhams as compensation for material and moral damages, including legal interest, and obliging him to pay fees, expenses, and attorney fees. She referred to the amount being transferred to the defendant's account by mistake, and as soon as she became aware of the mistake, she promptly notified him and demanded the return of the amount, but he refused to return it and misappropriated it without any right, which led her to take legal action against him, and the fact of misappropriation was proven by the criminal judgment issued against him.
The defendant, in his response memo, requested at the end of it to limit the judgment to the original amount transferred to him, and rejected the compensation request, allowing him to pay the amount in installments.
He blamed the lawsuit on his having acted in good faith and having tried amicably to return the amount, but the plaintiff did not respond.
For its part, the court explained in the reasoning of its ruling that the criminal judgment issued in the matter of the criminal lawsuit before the primary court, detailed the occurrence of the act constituting the common basis between the civil and criminal lawsuits, and in the legal description of it and its attribution to the perpetrator, noting that the defendant was convicted for the misappropriation of the amount transferred to him by mistake, a fact which the civil court stands by, and it is not allowed to reassess the incident, making the defendant obliged to return the misappropriated amount.
Regarding the compensation request, the court noted that according to the established laws of civil transactions, any damage caused to another necessitates compensation, once the error and the damage are proven, and the causal relationship between them is established. The conclusive criminal judgment proved that the defendant misappropriated the claimant's money, which is a proven mistake on his part, and resulted in material damages represented by the costs associated with trying to recover the amount and the loss of benefit, and moral damages represented in anxiety and stress, establishing the causal relationship between the mistake and the damage, hence, the defendant bears the legal responsibility for these damages.
The court ruled obligating the defendant to pay the plaintiff an amount of 24,800 dirhams, the value of the misappropriated amount, and an amount of 3,000 dirhams as compensation for the damage, along with obliging him to pay fees and expenses, and rejecting all else.
