Case:
D.1996, 610 Case Association pour la gestion du poste de transfusion sanguine v. MmeX.
Date:
09 July 1996
Note:
Translated French Cases and Materials under the direction of Professor B. Markesinis and M. le Conseiller Dominique Hascher
Translated by:
Tony Weir
Copyright:
Professor B. S. Markesinis

Cour de cassation:

Given that Mme X was infected by the HIV virus when receiving transfusions of blood and frozen plasma in May 1983 and November 1986, these products having been supplied by the Association pour la gestion du poste de transfusion sanguine du Havre (the Association); that Mme X… made a claim before the Fonds d’indemnisation des transfuses et hémophiles infected with HIV (the Fonds) and the Fonds offered her on 6 July 1992 the sum of 1,646,000 francs “in satisfaction of the entirety of the harm specifically due to the contamination”, defined in the offer of the Fonds itself as “personal harm of a non-economic nature covering the whole of the disturbance in the conditions of life resulting from the infection including the development of AIDS itself”; that Mme X, having accepted this offer on 30 July 1992, then sued the Association and a clinic in the civil courts, claiming damages for her moral damage (allowance being given for the sum received from the Fonds) and also for her economic harm, since her health no longer enables her to continue working as a nurse; that Mme X having died during the litigation her claim is being pursued by her husband;

On the sole ground of application for review, all three limbs: Given that the Association criticises the court of appeal (Rouen, 26 January 1994) for holding it liable for breach of its obligation to provide blood products free from any defect when, on the one hand, the inherent defect in the blood had the character of an external cause, of force majeure, and on the other hand the court omitted to take into account the failure of the public authorities to inform the public of the existence of contaminated parcels of blood, and that, finally, the harm was not foreseeable, so that the court below violated articles 1147, 1148 and 1150 Code civil;

But given that bodies supplying blood for transfusion are bound to supply the users with products free from defect and that they cannot exonerate themselves from this safety obligation except by proving some external cause; that the inherent defect in the blood, even if it was undetectable, did not constitute a cause which exonerated them, any more than the failure of the public authorities to give adequate information; that thus the complaints are baseless;

But on the three last limbs of the application: In view of article 47 of the Law of 31 December 1991 (no. 91-1406), article 1147 Code civil and article 31 New Code of Civil Procedure:

Given that the court of appeal granted the claim of Mme X as to her moral harm on the ground that article 47 of the Law of 31 December 1991 did not bar it; that it evaluated this harm at 1,800,000 francs, and having ascertained that Mme X had received the sum of 1,646,000 francs from the Fonds for the same head of damage held the Association liable to her for the difference, namely 154,000 francs;

But given that a victim who has accepted an offer of indemnity which under article 47(3) of the Law of 31 December 1991 amounts to compensation for the whole of the harm specifically due to the infection has no interest in seeking a further indemnity for the same head of loss; that the court of appeal, having held that the moral damage for which she was seeking compensation was specifically due to the infection, failed to draw the correct legal conclusions from its own findings; …

For these reasons QUASHES and ANNULS the decision only in so far as it allowed the claim for moral harm and awarded 154,000 francs under that head of damage….

Civ., 09 juillet 1996: La responsabilité du fournisseur de sang est entendue strictement et la défense basée sur le développement du risque tel que défini par la directive - non appliquée - est inopérante dans la mesure où cette directive n’est pas obligatoire, mais optionnelle pour les Etats membres. l’affirmation du caractère non-contraignant de la directive s’agissant de la notion de risque de développement et, par conséquent, de la faculté pour les Etats-membres d’introduire ou non dans leur législation interne l’exonération pour risque de développement est aujourd’hui sans objet compte tenu de la transposition de cette directive en droit français par la loi du 19 mai 1998. Toutefois, sur la question du risque de développement lui-même, risque dont la Cour de cassation n’avait pas reconnu le caractère exonératoire de responsabilité dans ses arrêts du 09 juillet 1996, retenant au contraire la responsabilité des fournisseurs du sang contaminé du fait de la réalisation de ce risque (le vice interne du produit, fût-il indécelable au moment de la transfusion, engageait la responsabilité du fournisseur), la doctrine s’interroge aujourd’hui sur le maintien de cette jurisprudence qui semble aujourd’hui contraire à l’article 1386-11-4° du Code civil (exonération de responsabilité du producteur lorsque “l’état des connaissances scientifiques et techniques, au moment où il a mis le produit en circulation, n’a pas permis de déceler l’existence du défaut”). On notera cependant que la Cour de justice des communautés européennes (arrêt du 29 mai 1997), suivie par un arrêt de la Cour d’appel de Toulouse du 22 février 2000 encadre strictement cette condition d’exonération : le niveau de connaissance auquel il est fait référence doit notamment être le plus avancé possible ; l’impossibilité de déceler le vice en question doit revêtir, de ce fait, un caractère absolu pour exonérer valablement le producteur.

 

Back to top

This page last updated Thursday, 15-Dec-2005 09:05:51 CST. Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.