The Supreme Court in its ruling on case No. 904/5489/18 indicated when Ukravtodor was responsible for an accident that occurred due to a poor-quality road.
According to the general provisions of Article 22 of the Civil Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the Civil Code of Ukraine ), losses are:
1) losses incurred by a person in connection with the destruction or damage of a thing, as well as expenses that a person has made or will have to make in order to restore his violated right (real damage);
2) income that a person could actually receive under normal circumstances if his right had not been violated (loss of profit).
In accordance with the provisions of the first part of Article 225 of the Economic Code of Ukraine , the list of losses subject to compensation by a person who committed an economic offense includes: the cost of lost, damaged or destroyed property, determined in accordance with the requirements of the legislation; additional costs (penalties paid to other entities, the cost of additional work, additionally consumed materials, etc.) incurred by a party that incurred losses due to a breach of an obligation by the other party; lost profits (lost profits), on which the party incurred losses, and had the right to count in the case of proper performance of the obligation by the second party; material compensation for non-pecuniary damage in cases provided by law.
General grounds for liability for property damage caused are given in Article 1166 of the Civil Code of Ukraine , according to the content of which property damage caused by unlawful decisions, actions or inaction to personal non-property rights of an individual or legal entity, as well as damage caused to property of an individual or legal entity, is compensated in full the person who caused the harm. A person who has caused harm shall be exempted from his compensation if he proves that the harm was caused through no fault of his.
So, in order to compensate for the damage caused to property, it is necessary to prove the illegality of human behavior; guilt of the harm-doer the presence of harm; a causal link between wrongful behavior and harm. The presence of all these conditions is mandatory for the court to make a decision on compensation for harm. The absence of at least one of these elements excludes liability for the damage caused. In this case, it is the plaintiff who is obliged to prove the existence of harm, the unlawfulness (illegality) of the behavior of the tortfeasor and the causal relationship of such behavior with the harm caused. In turn, the defendant must prove that his actions (the actions of his employees) are not guilty of causing harm.
Illegal behavior of a person may manifest itself in making an unlawful decision or in misconduct (actions or inaction). It is illegal in civil law to conduct conduct that violates peremptory norms of law or statutory terms of a contract, as a result of which the rights of another person are violated. Harm (losses) means material damage, expressed in the reduction of the property of the victim as a result of violation of his property right, and (or) the diminution of non-property benefits (life, health, etc.). The causal link between the unlawful behavior of a person and the harm caused is a prerequisite for liability, which provides that the harm has become an objective consequence of the behavior of the inflictor of harm (the above legal position is set out in the decision of the Supreme Court of 10.12.
Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Highways” (as amended at the time of the emergence of the disputed legal relationship) determines that a road is a linear complex of engineering structures designed for safe and convenient movement of vehicles. According to the content of Article 7 of this Law , it is stipulated that public roads are in state ownership.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine “On Motor Roads” (as amended at the time of the emergence of the disputed legal relationship), the management of public roads is carried out by the central executive body implementing the state policy in the field of road facilities and the management of public roads of national importance…
The main responsibilities of the public administration body for public highways, in particular, are the organization of construction, reconstruction, repair and maintenance of public highways of national importance in accordance with state building codes and standards, as well as lists of objects and amounts of budget funds for construction, reconstruction and overhaul of public highways approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine; control over the state of public highways of state importance, identification of hazardous places (sections) and places of concentration of road accidents and implementation of measures to eliminate them ( Article 11 of the Law of Ukraine “On Highways” in the corresponding edition).
In accordance with paragraph 3 of Article 13 of the Law of Ukraine “On Motor Roads”, the state administration body for public roads is responsible for compensation for losses to users of public roads in the manner prescribed by law.
According to the first part of Article 24 of the Law of Ukraine “On Road Traffic” (as amended at the time of the accident), the owners of roads, streets and railway crossings or their authorized bodies are responsible for creating safe traffic conditions on roads, streets and railway crossings located in their conducting.
Within the meaning of clause 2 of the Unified Rules for the Repair and Maintenance of Highways, Streets, Level Crossings, the Rules for Their Use and Protection, approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 198 dated March 30, 1994 (with amendments and additions, hereinafter referred to as the Rules), which are in state ownership carried out by road maintenance organizations that belong to the management of Ukravtodor.
Clause 1 of the Regulations on the State Agency for Roads of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations), approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine 10.09.2014 No. 439, The State Agency for Roads of Ukraine (Ukravtodor) is the central executive body, whose activities are directed and coordinated by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine through the Minister of Infrastructure and implementing state policy in the field of road facilities.
The main tasks of Ukravtodor are the implementation of state policy in the field of road facilities and the implementation of state management of public highways, management of state property objects (clause 3 of the Regulation).
According to the content of paragraphs 5, 11 of the Rules, it is stipulated that the owners of road facilities or their authorized bodies, road operating organizations, users of road facilities and specialized traffic management services are obliged to ensure comfortable and safe traffic conditions, help increase the throughput of road facilities, and prevent injury to road users. traffic, damage to vehicles and road objects, environmental pollution.
The owners of road facilities or their authorized bodies, road operating organizations are obliged to: timely and efficiently carry out operational work in accordance with technical rules in compliance with traffic safety norms and standards; constantly monitor the operational state of all elements of road objects and immediately eliminate the detected damage or other obstacles in road traffic, and if it is impossible to do this, immediately mark them with road signs, signaling, fencing and guiding devices in accordance with the current regulations or stop (restrict) traffic; control the quality of work performed by contractors; reimburse the damage to vehicle owners in the manner prescribed by law, if the road traffic accident has occurred due to unsatisfactory road maintenance. performed by contractors; to compensate the damage to vehicle owners in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation, if the road traffic accident occurred due to unsatisfactory road maintenance. performed by contractors; to compensate the damage to vehicle owners in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation, if the road traffic accident occurred due to unsatisfactory road maintenance. performed by contractors; to compensate the damage to vehicle owners in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation, if the road traffic accident occurred due to unsatisfactory road maintenance. performed by contractors; to compensate the damage to vehicle owners in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation, if the road traffic accident occurred due to unsatisfactory road maintenance.
So, in the understanding of the above provisions, in the event of damage to vehicle owners as a result of an accident, which occurred due to unsatisfactory road maintenance, such losses must be reimbursed by the road owners or their authorized bodies.
