Background
A passenger died in a single-vehicle accident on August 23, 2023. Her grandmother, who had served as her guardian for years, sought loss-of-support damages from the vehicle’s compulsory motor liability insurer. The grandmother alleged that the deceased bore no fault and increased her initially nominal claim to TRY 100,000.
The Ankara 9th Commercial Court of First Instance allowed the claim and ordered the insurer to pay TRY 100,000 with statutory interest from September 23, 2023. The insurer appealed, disputing the grandmother’s entitlement, the absence of a formal fault report, the damages calculation, interest, possible payments to other beneficiaries, contributory fault, and whether a reduction was required because the passenger had been transported gratuitously.
The Court’s Holding
The 35th Civil Chamber accepted the appeal, vacated the judgment under Article 353(1)(a)(6) of the Code of Civil Procedure, and remanded the case for a new trial. It held that the first-instance court had ruled before collecting and evaluating evidence material to the dispute. Although the accident involved only one vehicle, the trial court was required to obtain the complete criminal investigation or prosecution file, determine how the accident occurred, and secure an expert fault report from the Forensic Medicine Institute.
The appellate court also directed the trial court to reassess whether the deceased contributed to the loss, including evidence concerning seat-belt use, possible ejection from the vehicle, and the nature of her injuries, and to determine whether she was being carried gratuitously as a favor. Any established contributory fault could justify a reduction under Article 52 of the Turkish Code of Obligations, while gratuitous carriage had to be examined and expressly reasoned under Article 87 of the Highway Traffic Law and Article 51 of the Code of Obligations.
Finally, the court held that loss-of-support damages depend on actual, regular financial support rather than kinship, inheritance rights, or formal guardianship alone. On remand, the trial court must investigate the deceased’s relationship with her living mother, the circumstances and effect of any removal of the mother’s custody rights, any insurance payment already made to the mother or other beneficiaries, and the current family-registration record. It must then obtain a revised actuarial calculation, allocate the policy limit proportionally if necessary under Article 96 of the Highway Traffic Law, and preserve the insurer’s acquired procedural rights because only the insurer appealed. The chamber’s remand decision was unanimous and final.
Key Takeaways
- A loss-of-support claimant must prove an actual and regular relationship of financial support; neither blood relationship nor former guardianship is independently decisive.
- A civil court must independently assess fault, while respecting material facts and unlawfulness established in related criminal proceedings, and may not decide on an incomplete accident record.
- Contributory fault and gratuitous carriage must be investigated and reasoned, and multiple eligible beneficiaries may require a revised actuarial calculation and proportional allocation within the policy limit.
Why It Matters
The decision emphasizes that Turkish loss-of-support claims require a fact-specific examination of the deceased’s real economic relationships. A grandmother is not categorically barred from recovery, but her entitlement cannot be established merely by showing kinship, cohabitation, or a former guardianship order.
For motor insurers and claimants, the ruling also underscores that fault evidence, passenger conduct, the purpose of transportation, competing beneficiaries, prior insurance payments, and policy-limit allocation must be resolved before damages are awarded.