KS will check the Civil Code of the Russian Federation for compliance with the constitution
The Constitutional Court (Constitutional Court) of the Russian Federation received a complaint of a resident near Moscow requiring the articles of the Civil Code on compensation for non -pecuniary damage and compensation for losses caused by state bodies. The complaint was based on the trial around the accident: the traffic police found the driver guilty of the accident, but the courts removed this conclusion from the documents. In this regard, the motorist tried to recover compensation from the traffic police, but it was not possible to do this, as a result, the driver was forced to complain to the Constitutional Court. The applicant’s position surveyed by “Kommersant” seems justified, since the legislation does not really ensh the procedure for the payment of compensation for this case.
The Constitutional Court accepted the complaint of a resident of the city of the city of Zheleznodorozhny Alexander Ivchenkov, an embitt of the proceedings was the accident that occurred in September 2021 in the courtyard of his house. As follows from the case file (“Kommersant” got acquainted with them), driving a Renault Logan car, Mr. Ivchenkov first collided with Nissan Teana, and then with a nearby Volvo. The traffic police inspector who arrived at the place issued a definition of refusing to initiate an administrative case, since the composition of the offense was absent (if the driver, for example, shot down a person, then the case would be instituted under Article 12.24 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
In the application to the definition, the inspector indicated that Alexander Ivchenkov was guilty of an accident. On this basis, affected car owners received insurance insurance payments.
Mr. Ivchenkov did not agree with this and first filed a complaint with the traffic police, and then to the court. The Railway City Court of the Moscow Region and the Moscow Regional Court rejected the complaint, but the first cassation court of general jurisdiction in September 2022 sided with the complainant. The court excluded the conclusions from the decision of the traffic police (and the courts where the driver turned) that Mr. Ivchenkov violated the traffic rules. The plaintiff, in turn, took the decision of the cassation court so that the traffic police officer violated the norm. 1.5 Code of Administrative Offenses, setting the driver’s guilt before a court decision or official. In this regard, Alexander Ivchenkov again went around the courts, making compensation for moral damage and reimbursement of expenses for a lawyer from the police, but received a refusal in all instances up to the Supreme Court.
Then the owner of the Renault Logan turned to the Constitutional Court, demanding that four articles of the Civil Code (Civil Code) of the Russian Federation (on compensation for harm, about the responsibility for the harm caused by state bodies, including caused by state bodies and local governments). Mr. Ivchenkov believes that these norms of the Code contradict Art. 2, 17-19, 46, 48 and 53 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and contain “legal uncertainty”.
The traffic police inspector concluded that the citizen’s guilt in the accident in the determination of the refusal to initiate the case, this conclusion was declared illegal by the court, in which case the Civil Code does not provide for the possibility of reimbursing the costs and compensation of non -pecuniary damage, follows the complaint.
This will become the subject of verification by the Constitutional Court.
The general director of the law firm Mitra Oslan Kairov considers the applicant’s position “deserving”. According to him, the Constitutional Court earlier indicated that the lack of administrative production « does not cancel the right to compensation if the harm is caused by illegal actions of state bodies. » “Court expenses, including a lawyer, are subject to compensation, even if they are not inscribed in the Code of Administrative Offenses as costs,” Mr. Kairov believes. “The actions of the traffic police officer were recognized as illegal by the court, and the legislation does not really contain a special procedure for compensation for legal costs in case of refusal to initiate an administrative case,” explains Andrey Sharkov, the management partner of the Russian Law Company, a member of the Russian Law Association. According to him, there are universal norms in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation that allow you to recover losses, « if the actions of the police are recognized as illegal. » The interpretation of these norms “as not allowing to recover losses” can become the basis for the decision of the Constitutional Court, the lawyer believes. Mr. Kairov believes that the CS will confirm the constitutionality of the contested norms, but will indicate the need for their uniform application in such cases.
