Compensación del daño moral puro de las víctimas secundarias o por rebote. Comentarios comparados en derecho inglés y francés. Corte Suprema, 24 de enero de 2019, ROL Nº 38.037-2017

Abstract

Moving away from the traditional cases dealing with death or injury of the primary victim, the Chilean Supreme Court compensated the non-pecuniary losses suffered by the wife and children of a man who was wrongly accused of being the author of a crime in the evening news emission of a national television broadcaster. A review of the current framework of protection given to honour and reputation will be useful to assess the structure of the compensation of non-pecuniary losses, distinguishing between normative and consequential ones, as well as highlighting to what extent “pure” moral losses are redressed. Additionally, the limitations imposed by other jurisdictions such as English and French law will be outlined, focusing on both the cases where secondary victims can claim such losses, as well as the restrictions imposed on the class of persons who can make such claims. All this will expose how the Chilean legal system shows signs of being one of the most liberal of the world regarding the breadth of the compensation of non-pecuniary losses, this being only one example among many others.

Arantxa Gutiérrez Raymondova

Lecturer in Private law

I am a Lecturer in Private law at the University of Glasgow. I am interested in tort law, comparative law, contract law, and taxonomy.