Background
Four family members were injured in a head-on traffic collision on July 21, 2019. They alleged that the defendant driver crossed approximately 1.2 meters into their lane and was entirely at fault. Three family members sustained lasting impairments, while the fourth, a minor, did not. The plaintiffs sought temporary and permanent disability compensation from the driver and the vehicle’s compulsory-liability insurer, as well as noneconomic damages from the driver.
The Denizli First Commercial Court found the defendant driver 100% at fault and declined to reduce recovery for alleged seat-belt nonuse. It awarded three plaintiffs temporary and permanent disability damages, rejected the minor plaintiff’s disability claims, and awarded noneconomic damages of TRY 50,000 to each of three plaintiffs and TRY 30,000 to the fourth. It imposed joint and several liability for the economic awards but capped the insurer’s total responsibility at TRY 360,000.
Both sides appealed. The plaintiffs argued that the applicable compulsory-insurance limit was TRY 390,000 per injured person and sought the full TRY 50,000 in noneconomic damages for the fourth plaintiff. The driver challenged the fault finding and the amounts awarded, while also contending that the insurer’s limit should apply separately to each plaintiff.
The Court’s Holding
The Fourteenth Civil Chamber rejected the driver’s appeal. It held that the police statement, accident report, and expert analysis adequately supported the finding that the defendant driver was entirely at fault. It also found the noneconomic awards sufficient and appropriate in light of the injuries, the parties’ social and economic circumstances, the value of money at the time, and the principle that noneconomic damages must not become a source of enrichment.
The court accepted the plaintiffs’ appeal as to insurance limits. A regulation published on July 13, 2019 applied from July 1, 2019 and raised the minimum compulsory-insurance limit for bodily injury or death to TRY 390,000 per person, with a TRY 1,950,000 per-accident limit. Because the collision occurred on July 21, 2019 and involved multiple injured claimants, the trial court erred by imposing a single TRY 360,000 cap.
Without ordering a new trial, the appellate court vacated the judgment and entered a corrected judgment under Article 353(1)(b)(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure. It retained the economic and noneconomic awards, rejection of the minor’s disability claims, fault allocation, and interest dates, but limited the insurer’s liability to TRY 390,000 separately for each qualifying plaintiff and corrected the fee and cost provisions.
Key Takeaways
- The compulsory motor-insurance limit in force on the accident date governs the insurer’s liability.
- For this July 21, 2019 collision, the applicable bodily-injury limit was TRY 390,000 per person, not a single TRY 360,000 cap for all claimants.
- The court left intact the finding that the defendant driver was 100% at fault and upheld the disability and noneconomic-damages awards.
Why It Matters
The decision underscores that Turkish courts must distinguish between per-person and per-accident compulsory-insurance limits when several people are injured in one collision. Treating a per-person limit as one aggregate cap can materially understate an insurer’s exposure.
It also illustrates the regional appellate court’s power to correct a legally erroneous judgment and enter a new disposition without retrial when the existing record is sufficient.