Book2 Chapter07 Title25

GERMAN CIVIL CODE OF 1896

• Based on the English Translation by: Wang, Chung Hui (1907). The German Civil Code, translated and annotated with historical introduction and appendices. London: Stevens and Sons. [available on Archive.org]

BOOK II. Law of Obligations.

Chapter VII. Particular Kinds of Obligations.

Title XXV. Unlawful Acts.

Section 823.

• [I] A person who, wilfully or negligently, unlawfully injures the life, body, health, freedom, property or any other right of another is bound to compensate him (?) for any damage arising therefrom.
• [II] A person who infringes a statutory provision intended for the protection of others incurs the same obligation. If, according to the purview of the statute, infringement is possible even without any fault on the part of the wrong-doer, the duty to make compensation arises only if some fault can be imputed to him.

Section 824.

• [I] A person who maintains or publishes, contrary to the truth, a statement calculated to endanger the credit of another, or to injure his earnings or prosperity in any other manner, shall compensate the other for any damage arising therefrom, even if he does not know of its untruth, provided he ought to know it.
• [II] A person who makes a communication the untruth of which is unknown to him, does not thereby render himself liable to make compensation, if he or the receiver of the communication has a legal interest in it.

Section 825.

• A person who by fraud or threats, or by an abuse of a relation of dependence, induces a woman to permit illicit cohabitation, is bound to compensate her for any damage arising therefrom.

Section 826.

• A person who wilfully causes damage to another in a manner contra bonos mores is bound to compensate the other for the damage.

Section 827.

• A person who causes damage to another in a condition of unconsciousness, or in a condition of morbid disturbance of the mental activity, incompatible with a free determination of the will, is not responsible for the damage. If he has brought himself into a temporary condition of this kind by spirituous liquors or similar means, he is responsible for any damage which he in this condition unlawfully causes in the same manner as if negligence were imputable to him ; the responsibility does not arise if he has been brought into this condition without fault.

Section 828.

• [I] A person who has not completed his seventh year of age is not responsible for any damage which he causes to another.
• [II] A person who has completed his seventh but not his eighteenth year of age is not responsible for any damage which he causes to another, if he at the time of committing the damaging act did not have the understanding necessary for realising his responsibility. The came rule applies to a deaf mute.

Section 829.

• A person who, in any one of the cases specified in 823 to 826, is, by virtue of 827, 828 not responsible for any damage caused by him, shall, nevertheless, where compensation cannot be obtained from a third party charged with the duty of supervision, make compensation for damage in so far as according to the circumstances; e.g., according to the relative positions of the parties, equity requires compensation, and he is not deprived of the means which he needs for his own maintenance suitable to his station in life and for the fulfilment of his statutory duties to furnish maintenance to others.

Section 830.

• [I] If several persons have caused any damage by an act committed in common, each is responsible for the damage. The same rule applies if it cannot be discovered which of several participants has actually caused the damage.
• [II] Instigators and accomplices are in the same position as joint-doers.

Section 831.

• [I] A person who employs another to do any work is bound to compensate for any damage which the other unlawfully causes to a third party in the performance of his work. The duty to compensate does not arise if the employer has exercised ordinary care in the selection of the employee, and, where he has to supply appliances or implements or to superintend the work, has also exercised ordinary care as regards such supply or superintendence, or if the damage would have arisen, notwithstanding the exercise of such care.
• [II] The same responsibility attaches to a person who, by contract with the employer, undertakes to take charge of any of the affairs specified in par. 1, sentence 2.

Section 832.

• [I] A person who is bound by law to exercise supervision over a person who needs supervision on account of minority, or on account of his mental or physical condition, is bound to make compensation for any damage which the latter unlawfully causes to a third party. The duty to make compensation does not arise if he fulfils his duty of supervision, or if the damage would have been occasioned notwithstanding the exercise of proper supervision.
• [II] The same responsibility attaches to a person who undertakes the supervision by contract.

Section 833.

• If a person is killed, or the body or health of a person is injured, or a thing is damaged by an animal, the person who keeps the animal is bound to compensate the injured party for any damage arising therefrom.

Section 834.

• A person who undertakes to take charge of an animal under a contract with the keeper of the animal, is responsible for any damage which the animal causes to a third party in the manner specified in 833. The responsibility does not arise if he has exercised ordinary care in taking charge of the animal, or if the damage would have been occasioned notwithstanding the exercise of such care.

Section 835.

• [I] If land over which its owner does not have the sporting rights is damaged by wild boar, red deer, elk, fallow deer, roe deer, or pheasants, the person who has the sporting rights is bound to compensate the injured party for the damage. The duty to make compensation extends to all damage which the animals do to products of the land which have been harvested, though not yet gathered in.
• [II] If the exercise of the sporting rights belonging to the owner is withdrawn from him by law, the person who is by law entitled to exercise the sporting rights has to make compensation for the damage. If the owner of a piece of land over which the sporting rights, on account of the situation of the land, can be exercised only in common with the sporting rights over another piece of land, has leased the sporting rights to the owner of such other piece of land under a usufructuary lease, the latter is responsible for the damage.
• [III] If, for the purpose of a common exercise of the right of sporting, the landowners of a district have been united by law into an association which is not liable as such, they are responsible for damages in proportion to the size of their landed properties.

Section 836.

• [I] If, by the fall of a building or other structure attached to a piece of land, or by the detachment of parts of the building or structure, a person is killed, or the body or health of a person is injured, or a thing is damaged, and if the fall or the detachment was caused by defective construction or insufficient maintenance, the possessor of the land is bound to compensate the injured party for any damage arising therefrom. The duty to make compensation does not arise if the possessor has exercised ordinary care for the purpose of averting the danger.
• [II] A former possessor of the land is responsible for the damage, if the fall or the detachment occurs within one year after the termination of his possession, unless during his possession he exercised ordinary care, or unless a subsequent possessor would have been able to avert the danger by the exercise of such care.
• [III] Only a proprietary possessor is a possessor within the meaning of these provisions.

Section 837.

• If a person, in the exercise of a right, possesses a building or other structure on the land of another, the responsibility specified in 836 attaches to him instead of to the possessor of the land.

Section 838.

• A person who undertakes for the possessor the maintenance of a building or a structure attached to land, or who has to maintain the building or the structure by virtue of a right of use belonging to him, is responsible in the same manner as the possessor for any damage caused by its fall or the detachment of its parts.

Section 839.

• [I] If an official wilfully or negligently commits a breach of official duty incumbent upon him as towards a third party, he shall compensate the third party for any damage arising therefrom. If only negligence is imputable to the official, he may be held liable only if the injured party is unable to obtain compensation elsewhere.
• [II] If an official commits a breach of his official duty in giving Judgment in an action, he is not responsible for any damage arising therefrom, unless the breach of duty is punished with a public penalty to be enforced by criminal proceedings. This provision does not apply to a breach of duty consisting in the refusal or delay in the exercise of the office.
• [III] The duty to make compensation does not arise if the injured party has wilfully or negligently omitted to obviate the injury by making use of a legal remedy.

Section 840.

• [I] If several persons are jointly responsible for any damage arising from an unlawful act, they are liable, subject to the provision of 835, par. 3, as joint debtors.
• [II] If a person is liable under 831, 832 to make compensation for the damage caused by another for which such other is also liable, as between themselves only the latter is liable, or in the case provided for by 829, only the person who has the duty of supervision.
• [III] If a person is liable under 833 to 838 to make compensation for any damage for which a third party is also liable, as between themselves only such third party is liable.

Section 841.

• If an official who, by virtue of his official duty, has to appoint another to conduct an affair for a third party, or has to supervise the conduct of such affair, or by his ratification of juristic acts has to concur in them, is, where he commits any breach of duty, liable jointly with such other person for any damage caused by the latter, then as between themselves only the latter is liable.

Section 842.

• The obligation to make compensation for any damage on account of an unlawful act committed against the person of another extends to the detriment which the act occasions to his earnings or prosperity.

Section 843.

• [I] If, in consequence of an injury to the body or health of another, the earning capacity of the injured party is destroyed or impaired, or an increase of his necessities arises, compensation shall be made to the injured party by the payment of a money annuity.
• [II] The provisions of 769 apply to the annuity. Whether, in what manner, and to what amount, the person bound to make compensation has to give security is determined according to the circumstances.
• [III] Instead of the annuity the injured party may demand a settlement in a lump sum, if a grave reason exists.
• [IV] The claim is not barred by the fact that another person has to furnish maintenance to the injured party.

Section 844.

• [I] In the case of causing death the person bound to make compensation shall make good the funeral expenses to the person on whom the obligation of bearing such expenses lies.
• [II] If the deceased at the time of the injury stood in a relation to a third party by virtue of which he was or might be bound by law to furnish maintenance to such third party, and if in consequence of the death such third party is deprived of the right to claim maintenance, the person bound to make compensation shall compensate the third party by the payment of a money annuity, in so far as the deceased would have been bound to furnish maintenance during the presumable duration of his life; the provisions of 843, pars. 2 to 4, apply mutatis mutandis. The obligation to make compensation arises even if at the time of the injury the third party was only en ventre sa mere.

Section 845.

• In the case of causing death, or of causing injury to the body or health of another, or in the case of deprivation of liberty, if the injured party was bound by law to perform service in favour of a third party in his household or industry, the person bound to make compensation shall compensate the third party for the loss of service by the payment of a money annuity. The provisions of 843, pars. 2 to 4, apply mutatis mutandis.

Section 846.

• If, in the cases provided for by 844, 845, some fault of the injured party has contributed in causing the damage which the third party has sustained, the provisions of 254 apply to the claim of the third party.

Section 847.

• [I] In the case of injury to the body or health of another, or in the case of deprivation of liberty, the injured party may also demand an equitable compensation in money for the damage which is not a pecuniary loss. The claim is not transferable, and does not pass to the heirs, unless it has been acknowledged by contract, or an action on it has been commenced.
• [II] A like claim belongs to a woman against whom an immoral crime or offence is committed, or who is induced by fraud, or by threats, or by an abuse of a relation of dependence to permit illicit cohabitation.

Section 848.

• A person who is bound to return a thing of which he has deprived another by an unlawful act is also responsible for the accidental destruction of the thing, or for accidental impossibility of returning it arising from any other cause, or for its accidental deterioration, unless the destruction or the impossibility of returning it, or the deterioration would have come about even if the deprivation had not taken place.

Section 849.

• If on account of the taking of a thing its value, or, on account of damage to a thing, its diminution in value is to be made good, the injured party may demand interest on the amount to be made good from the time which serves as the basis for the estimate of the value.

Section 850.

• If a person bound to return a thing taken by him incurs any outlay on the thing, he has the rights against the injured party which a possessor has against an owner on account of outlay incurred.

Section 851.

• If a person bound to make compensation for any damage on account of the taking or damaging of a moveable compensates the person in whose possession the thing was at the time of the taking or damage, he is discharged by so doing even if a third party was owner of the thing, or had some other right in the thing, unless the right of the third party is known to him or remains unknown in consequence of gross negligence.

Section 852.

• [I] The claim for compensation for any damage arising from an unlawful act is barred by prescription in three years from the time at which the injured party has knowledge of the injury and of the identity of the person bound to make compensation; in the absence of such knowledge, in thirty years from the commission of the act.
• [II] If the person bound to make compensation has acquired anything by the unlawful act at the expense of the injured party, he is, even after the lapse of the period of prescription, bound to return it under the provisions relating to the return of unjustified benefits.

Section 853.

• If a person acquires, by an unlawful act committed by him, a claim against the injured party, the latter may refuse satisfaction even if the claim for avoidance of the claim is barred by prescription.