Parents' liability for damage to property
Parents' liability for damage to property
The extent of liability arising from an unlawful act is governed by article 41 of the Swiss Code of Obligations (CO), which obliges anyone who causes damage to another to compensate for it. According to your explanations, an unlawful act was committed because your son infringed your neighbour's property rights by destroying objects belonging to him.According to case law, the legally recognised loss is the involuntary reduction in net assets; it corresponds to the difference between the current value of the injured party's assets and the value these assets would have had if the harmful event had not occurred. That said, it is important to establish how the accident occurred, as the fault to be examined has both an objective and a subjective aspect, the latter being linked to the capacity for discernment, which is a concept defined by article 16 of the Civil Code. In essence, the law considers that a person is capable of discernment if he or she has the ability to act reasonably. Under articles 43 and 44 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, the judge determines the method and extent of compensation for damages according to the circumstances and the seriousness of the fault, and may reduce damages, or even not award any at all, where acts for which the victim is responsible contributed to causing the damage. You will therefore also need to consider whether allowing children to play in a garage, near a shelf that could fall on valuable objects, constitutes a concomitant fault on the part of your neighbour that would have an impact on the compensation he intends to claim from you.
