Civil liability for fire accidents is a kind of civil liability and belongs to tort civil liability. The so-called tort civil liability refers to the civil liability for compensation caused by tort. It includes two basic concepts: one is the civil tort of fire; The second is the civil tort liability of fire.
(I) Civil Tort in Fire Accident
Civil Tort refers to the act that the actor infringes on other people's property and person due to his fault, and other harmful acts that should bear civil liability according to the special provisions of the law. Fire accident infringement is a kind of infringement caused by special reasons of "fire", which refers to the behavior that the actor infringes on the property and person of others due to negligence or fault, and should bear civil liability according to law.
(II) Civil Tort Liability in Fire Accidents
What the civil tort liability of fire should solve is mainly the problem of compensation and relief when the victim's rights are infringed, instead of imposing sanctions on the person or property of the actor like criminal law and administrative law. Tort liability adjusts the civil relationship between equal subjects, and adopts the principle of "not suing and ignoring", and compensation can be negotiated with the parties; Administrative responsibility and criminal responsibility safeguard social interests and national interests. Except for a few cases of private prosecution, administrative organs and judicial organs should take the initiative to investigate the administrative responsibility or criminal responsibility of the actor, and the responsibility cannot be decided by the victim, and the actor and the victim cannot reconcile privately.
second, fire accidents and civil tort liability
(1) the role of criminal means and administrative means in sanctioning those responsible for fire accidents
In the past legal system, people paid more attention to the role of criminal means and administrative means in sanctioning those responsible for fire accidents, ignoring the important role of civil means in this respect. For example, in the Fire Prevention Law of the People's Republic of China, which was revised and passed at the Fifth Session of the 11th National People's Congress on October 28th, 28, only articles 64 and 68 respectively stipulate that "if a fire is caused by negligence, which does not constitute a crime, it shall be detained for more than 1 days and less than 15 days, and may also be fined up to 5 yuan; if the circumstances are relatively minor, it shall be given a warning or fined up to 5 yuan" and ". At the same time, Articles 114
and 115 of China's Criminal Law stipulate the criminal responsibility of the crime of fire.
(II) Necessity of Dealing with Fire Accident Liability by Tort Liability Law
Tort Liability Law confirms that the actions carried out by those responsible for fire accidents are tort, which makes it possible for them to bear tort civil liability. Tort liability law holds that any behavior that causes damage to the personal rights and property rights of others is an infringement, and all of them should bear tort liability in the form of damages. The behavior of the person responsible for the fire accident causes fire, which will cause damage to citizens and legal persons, including personal injury and property damage. These are all acts that infringe on civil rights, which meet the requirements of tort and constitute tort, and the consequence is to bear civil liability for tort.
3. Investigation of tort liability in fire accidents
(1) Principles of imputation of civil liability in fire accidents
Attribution refers to the basis on which the actor should be held responsible after the fact that his actions and objects have caused damage to others. This basis reflects the value judgment of the law, that is, the law should take the actor's fault or the damage result that has occurred as the value judgment standard, or take fair consideration as the value judgment standard to make the actor bear tort liability. The principle of imputation is the general criterion to determine the tort liability of the infringer. The principle of imputation has a core position in tort liability law. When determining the constitutive requirements of a tort, we must first determine what kind of imputation principle should be applied to this tort.
The system of imputation principles in China's tort liability law consists of three parts, namely, fault liability principle, no-fault liability principle and fair liability principle. Among them, the principle of fault liability has two forms: one is the general principle of fault liability to prove the fault by proof, and the other is the principle of fault presumption to identify the fault by presumption. The general tort applies the principle of fault liability, takes fault as the standard of value judgment, and guides people's correct behavior by punishing those who have faults, so as to prevent the occurrence of tort. Civil tort liability, where the law has special provisions, applies the principle of presumption of fault or the principle of no-fault liability to determine the attribution of tort liability, increase the possibility of compensation for the victim, and impose sanctions on the behavior of the perpetrator, so as to reduce social risk factors and prevent the occurrence of tort.
(II) Elements of civil liability for fire accidents
1. There must be illegality of fire or arson.
2. The objective facts of personal injury and property damage.
3. Causality between illegal fire behavior and damage facts.
4. Elements of subjective fault.
(iii) defense
the defense of fire accident liability refers to the legal cause put forward by the actor in a fire accident liability dispute case to exempt or mitigate the tort liability against the victim's claim for damages.
3. Civil compensation in fire accidents
Because of the diversity of fire causes, different compensation principles should be selected according to the actual situation in order to realize the fairness, rationality and scientificity of civil compensation.
(a) the principle of civil compensation for fire
l, the principle of full compensation.
2. Consider the principle of the compensation ability of the responsible person.
3. principle of property compensation.
4. Other compensation principles.
(II) The subject of the legal relationship of civil compensation for fire damage After the fire accident, the legal relationship of compensation for fire damage was formed between the parties concerned. The subject of rights and obligations in the legal relationship of fire damage compensation is the subject of fire damage compensation.
(III) Scope of civil compensation for fire accidents
1. Compensation for personal injury
Personal injury in fire accidents mainly includes damage to the right to life and health. In this regard, medical expenses, lost time, nursing expenses, transportation expenses, accommodation expenses, hospital meals, necessary nutrition expenses, disability equipment expenses, funeral expenses and dependents should be determined according to the general scope of personal injury compensation.
2. Compensation for material damage
The material damage here refers to property loss, which is divided into direct property loss and indirect property loss. The direct property loss caused by fire refers to the loss caused by burning, burning damage, demolition during smoking and fire fighting, water damage and pollution caused by fire. The direct property loss of each fire shall include the loss of houses, structures, equipment and other property.
3. Compensation for mental damage
The stress psychological and physiological reaction caused by fire in this extremely horrible environment will lead to the instantaneous decline of people's adaptability and coping ability to the environment. If this stress state continues, people in fire will continue to decline their judgment and analytical ability to the environment, or even lose their senses, resulting in other adverse consequences. The fire caused not only casualties and material losses, but also invisible psychological damage to the families of the victims, the survivors of the disaster, the rescuers at the disaster site and even the whole society.
IV. Suggestions on Perfecting the Civil Compensation System for Fire
(1) Establishing and Perfecting the Expert Witness System for Damage Compensation
Because fire accidents involve a wide range and have strong professionalism, there are tens of thousands of technical specifications for fire-fighting buildings alone, and judges may not be familiar with the professional knowledge involved, so the author proposes to establish the Expert Witness System for Damage Compensation to make up for this defect. In American judicial practice, the expert witness system is introduced to identify the damage facts, the amount of losses caused and the liability for compensation. This system is a very scientific and advanced practice, which is of great practical significance for correctly identifying the responsibility of infringement cases (including damages for breach of contract and other damages) and is worth learning from in China's judicial practice.
(II) Implementing fire insurance system
Article 33 of the new Fire Protection Law stipulates: "The state encourages and guides public gathering places and enterprises that produce, store, transport and sell inflammable and explosive dangerous goods to take out fire public liability insurance; Encourage insurance companies to underwrite fire public liability insurance. " This is the first time that commercial insurance has been written into the fire laws and regulations, which provides the possibility for the insurance industry and the fire department to establish a benign interaction mechanism. Insurance system is the best system to share responsibility among the systems to relieve fire accident damage.