The Supreme People's Court of China publicized Monday an
Explanation on Several Questions Concerning Relevant Laws of
Handling Infringement and Personal Injury Compensation Cases
(opinion-soliciting draft) on its website, widely soliciting
opinions from the public. The draft clearly stipulates how to
handle cases which has not been clearly regulated previously in the
law including injuries occurring in hotels or parks, injuries to
volunteers and students injured in schools.?
Injuries occurring in hotels or parks
To Chinese citizens who are attacked or injured in hotels or
parks, if the perpetrator hasn't been caught, can the victim first
demand the hotel or park to shoulder its responsibility? This is
usually a very controversial question in judicial practice.
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The draft regulates that: to people engaged in lodging, catering
and recreation business or other social activities which are open
to the public, if they fail to fulfill their duties in security
within a reasonable range, and which leads to personal injuries of
other people, they should shoulder the responsibility of
compensation.
If the victim is injured by a third party and the injury has
something to do with the failure of the hotel, park or restaurant
in fulfilling their duties of security, the third party should
first shoulder the responsibility of compensation; if the
whereabouts of the third party is unknown or the third party is
unable to shoulder the compensation, people who have duties on
guaranteeing safety should shoulder part of the compensation. Under
such circumstances, the victim can claim compensation from the
hotel.
Injuries of volunteers
The judicial Explanation has clearly regulated that: if
volunteers are injured during the course of performing voluntary
services, the person who is using the volunteer should shoulder
compensation responsibility. When the user of the volunteer and the
beneficiary are not the same person, the beneficiary should make
some relevant compensation according to the conditions. The
volunteer should shoulder some responsibility if he or she has made
a significant misstep on purpose.
Volunteers who suffer personal injuries caused by accidents
during the course of performing voluntary service, will be handled
according to different conditions: if the voluntary service which
is approved by the user of the volunteer, the user should shoulder
compensation responsibility. If the voluntary service which is
clearly turned down and the volunteer still insists on helping, the
user of the volunteer should make certain compensations according
to the beneficial conditions of the user.
Injuries of students
Schools, kindergartens or other education organizations, which
fail to fulfill their duties of supervision and protection and lead
to injuries of minors, should shoulder corresponding civil
responsibility equal to their mistakes. Schools which have
fulfilled their duties of supervision, and when students are
injured by a third party, the third party should shoulder civil
responsibility.
(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, September 18, 2003)
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