Civil liability for fire accident is a kind of civil liability, which 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.
(1) Civil tort in fire accidents
Civil tort refers to the behavior that the actor infringes on the property and person of others due to fault, and should bear civil liability according to law, as well as other harmful behaviors that should bear civil liability according to special provisions of law. Fire accident infringement is an infringement caused by the special reason 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.
(2) Civil tort liability in fire accidents
The civil tort liability of fire is mainly to solve the problem of compensation and relief when the victim's rights are infringed, rather than imposing sanctions on the person or property of the offender like criminal law and administrative law. Tort liability adjusts the civil relationship between equal subjects, adopts the principle of "no lawsuit and no attention", 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 perpetrator. The responsibility cannot be decided by the victim, and the perpetrator and the victim cannot reconcile privately.
Second, the fire accident and civil tort liability
(a) The role of criminal 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 punishing those responsible for fire accidents, while ignoring the important role of civil means in this regard. For example, in the Fire Prevention Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) revised and passed by the Fifth Session of the Eleventh National People's Congress on October 28th, 2008, 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 10 days and less than 15 days, and may also be fined less than 500 yuan. If the circumstances are minor, a warning or a fine of less than 500 yuan shall be imposed. If the on-site staff of the site fails to perform the obligation of organizing and guiding the evacuation of the personnel present, and the circumstances are serious and do not constitute a crime, they shall be detained for more than five days and less than ten days. " At the same time, article 1 14 of China's criminal law
Article 1 15 stipulates the criminal responsibility of the crime of fire.
(two) the necessity of tort liability law to deal with the responsibility of fire accidents.
Tort Liability Law confirms that the behavior of the person responsible for the fire accident is tort, which makes it possible for him to bear civil liability for tort. The Tort Liability Law holds that any act that causes damage to the personal rights and property rights of others is an infringement and 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 loss. These are violations of civil rights, which meet the requirements of tort and constitute tort, and the consequence is to bear civil tort liability.
Third, the investigation of tort liability in fire accidents.
(A) the principle of civil liability for fire accidents
Attribution refers to the basis on which the actor should bear the responsibility after the fact that the actor's actions and objects have caused damage to others. This basis reflects the value judgment of the law, that is, the law should take the fault of the actor or the result of the damage that has occurred as the value judgment standard, or take the fair consideration as the value judgment standard, so that the actor can bear the tort liability. The principle of imputation is the general standard to determine the tort liability of infringers. The principle of imputation plays a core role 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 imputation principle system of tort liability law in China 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, and the other is the principle of presumption of fault. 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 people who are at fault, thus preventing 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 ownership of tort liability, increases the possibility of compensation for the victim, and imposes sanctions on the behavior of the perpetrator, so as to reduce social risk factors and prevent the occurrence of tort.
(2) Elements of civil liability for fire accidents
1, arson or arson is definitely illegal.
2. The objective facts of personal injury and property loss.
3, the causal relationship between fire violations and damage facts.
4. Elements of subjective fault.
(3) Reasons for defense
The defense cause of fire accident liability refers to the legal cause put forward by the doer to exempt or reduce the tort liability and oppose the victim's claim for damages in the case of fire accident liability dispute.
Third, civil compensation in fire accidents.
Because of the diversity of fire causes, we should choose different compensation principles 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, full compensation principle.
2. Consider the principle of the compensation ability of the responsible person.
3. The principle of property compensation.
4. Other compensation principles.
(II) The main body 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. The subject of rights and obligations in the legal relationship of fire damage compensation is the subject of fire damage compensation.
(3) the scope of civil compensation for fire accidents
1, personal injury compensation
Personal injury in fire accidents mainly includes damage to the right to life and health. In this regard, compensation for medical expenses, lost time, nursing expenses, transportation expenses, accommodation expenses, hospitalization expenses, necessary nutrition expenses, disability equipment expenses, funeral expenses, living expenses of dependents, spiritual damages, etc. shall be determined in accordance with the general scope of personal injury compensation.
2. Compensation for material losses
Material loss 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 loss, smoking and demolition during 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 psychology 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 state of stress continues, people's judgment and analysis ability will continue to decline in the fire, and what's more, they will lose their minds, thus causing other adverse consequences. The fire not only caused casualties and material losses, but also caused intangible psychological harm to the families of victims, disaster survivors, rescuers at the disaster site and even the whole society.
Four, some suggestions to improve the civil compensation system of fire.
(A) to establish and improve the system of expert witnesses for damages
Because fire accidents involve a wide range and are highly professional, 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 suggests establishing an expert witness system for damage compensation to make up for this defect. In the judicial practice of the United States, the expert witness system is introduced to determine 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 our judicial practice.
(B) the implementation of the 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 fire laws and regulations, which makes it possible for the insurance industry and the fire department to establish a benign interaction mechanism. Insurance system is the best system to share responsibility among various systems to reduce the damage caused by fire accidents.