Challenge
The case was a challenge because our goal is to protect the client, compensate him for the violation of personal rights and prevent the violation of public areas due to the failure of the competent institutions to act in accordance with legally regulated duties and obligations.
The idea for the procedure itself was initially aimed at determining responsibility, the level of responsibility for each of the participants in the legal transaction, and detecting where it arises from.
We established that there is joint and several liability of three parties, as participants in the realization, regulation and maintenance of public roads, streets and other public areas, and we detected the level of liability of each of them. We determined the type and nature of the injuries suffered by the injured party, how such injuries affected her health and financial situation. We filed claims for damages, but the out-of-court settlement of the dispute remained unsuccessful, because each institution emphasized that it was not considered responsible for the harmful event and that the taking of actions and activities was not within their competence.
We initiated a lawsuit against three defendants, the Municipality of Karposh, the City of Skopje and the PE Water Supply and Sewerage before the Basic Civil Court in the Court. With the lawsuit, we requested that the injured party be compensated for the non-pecuniary damage suffered, as well as for the part of the medical expenses, as material damage.
After a year from the initiation of the dispute, the first-instance procedure ended positively in favor of the damaged party and with the verdict, the City of Skopje and the Public Enterprise Water Supply and Sewerage Skopje were jointly and severally obligated to compensate the damage suffered, while rejecting the claim against the Municipality of Karposh. The defendants against whom the claim was adopted filed an appeal against such verdict, after which the Court of Appeals overturned the first-instance verdict and returned the case for re-determination, instructing the Court to examine and determine whether there was any liability on the part of the damaged party, if so, what it consists of and what is the degree of such liability. The First Instance Court, upon retrial, determined that there is joint and several liability of the two defendants as above due to the failure to provide the manhole with an appropriate cover, as well as due to the failure to supervise and control the implementation of the works, as well as the contribution of the damaged party to the occurrence of the damage in the amount of 20%, and in proportion to the factual situation thus determined, awarded appropriate monetary compensation for non-pecuniary and material damage. The first instance judgment thus rendered was confirmed by the Skopje Court of Appeal.
