論法院酌減損害賠償金額之規範：歐陸各國民法中之酌減條款與我國民法第二百十八條之比較研究

Commentary on the Mitigation of Full Compensation of the Courts: A Comparative Study of the Reduction Clauses in the Civil Codes of European Countries and the Art. 218 Civil Code of Taiwan

林易典(Yi-Tien Lin)

《臺大法學論叢》 36卷3期 (2007/09) Pp. 305-384

https://doi.org/10.6199/NTULJ.2007.36.03.04

摘要

依我國民法第二百十八條之規定，如全數賠償將對於賠償義務人之生計造成重大影響時，法院得酌減損害賠償數額。此一「酌減條款」之規定，係繼受自瑞士債務法第四四條第二項。本文首先就不同法律體系下對於損害之數額確定後，決定賠償數額之規範模式，及就採取「酌減條款」之必要性加以分析。其次，本文比較分析瑞士債務法、荷蘭1992年民法新法、東歐及北歐各國、目前整合中之歐洲侵權行爲法及契約法學界草案中，所採納酌減條款其制定背景及酌減之要件。本文並分析解釋我國民法第二百十八條之「酌減條款」其應具有之內涵，在思考層次上並就「酌減事由之存在」（法院「酌減權之發生」）與法院「酌減權之行使」此二概念加以區別。我國民法第二百十八條條文排除了出於故意或重大過失之損害事件，賠償義務人受有酌減之可能，與本條保障賠償義務人生計之規範目的不一致，且在比較法上相對而言嚴格。本文於檢視近年之案例後，發現我國法院實務仍有擴張適用前揭排除酌減要件之傾向。與此相對者，法院應避免運用此一條款進行一般性的酌減，以免動搖損害賠償制度之責任基礎。

關鍵字

損害 ； 損害賠償 ； 全數賠償 ； 全數賠償或根本不負賠償責任原則 ； 酌減條款 ； 酌減賠償數額 ； 民法第二百十八條 ； 荷蘭民法 ； 瑞士債務法 ； 歐洲侵權行爲法原則 ； 歐洲契約法法典草案 ； 賠償義務人之生存能力 ； 衡平事由

並列摘要

According to the Art. 218 Civil Code of Taiwan, it grants courts the power to reduce the amount of compensation, if the awarding full compensation would lead to substantial influence on existence ability of the compensation debtors. This reduction clause was adopted from the Art. 44 para. 2 of the Swiss Code of Obligations of 1912. The first contest of this article is using the comparative studies to analyze how different legal systems decide the amount of compensation, after the sum of damages has been confirmed, and explaining the necessity of introducing the reduction clauses into the civil codes. The next part of this article is to analyze the background and the conditions of provisions in the countries, which grant the power to the courts to reduce the amount of compensation. Among them are the Swiss Code of Obligations, the new Civil Code of the Netherlands of 1992 and the provisions in the eastern European and Scandinavian countries. The new academic drafts to integrate the European tort and contract law are also included. In the final part, the conditions of mitigation from the courts according to the Art. 218 Civil Code of Taiwan will be analyzed. This article clarifies object of this provision, distinguishes “the existence of the mitigation reasons” from “the discretion of the courts to exercise this mitigation power” and explains the content of suitable conditions. The ＊ Assistant Professor of Law, National Cheng-Kung University, Dr. iur. of the University of Mainz, Germany (2006) exclusion of the mitigation power to the courts in the present Art. 218 Civil Code of Taiwan, provided the damage was caused willfully or by gross negligence, is not consistent with the purpose of this provision, i.e. to maintain the existence ability of the compensation debtors. This is relatively strict from the view-point of comparative law. After analyzing the recent cases and opinions of the courts in the past, this article finds on one hand the potential trends of the courts to expand the exclusion in the Art. 218 Civil Code of Taiwan. On the other hand the courts should also prevent a general equitable mitigation, because this will undermine the foundation of the liability.

並列關鍵字

damage ； compensation ； full compensation ； all or nothing principle ； reduction clause ； mitigation of compensation ； reduction of damages ； Art. 218 Civil Code of Taiwan ； the Swiss Code of Obligations ； the Dutch Ci

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