Facts
On December 8, 1992, A. (the claimant) was a passenger in her husband's Nissan Patrol Turbo-Diesel vehicle when a Fiat Panda traveling in the opposite direction collided head-on with the vehicle. A. suffered a whiplash injury with muscle spasms up to the lumbar spine. She was declared fully incapable of working until December 24, 1992, and then at 50% thereafter. The court of first instance calculated household damage of CHF 88,096 and professional damage of CHF 184,819 for the period from 8.12.1992 to 31.3.1999. The Federal Tribunal upheld the appeal of the defendant insurance and remanded the case to the lower instance for a new calculation of the damage.Considerations
The Federal Tribunal considers that the compensable damage is the reduction in assets or loss of earnings suffered by the victim, and not simply the impairment of personal and ideal assets. Household damage must be calculated abstractly, based on the cost that would have been incurred for the engagement of a housekeeper, regardless of the actual expenses incurred. However, a change in the allocation of household tasks between spouses for reasons unrelated to the accident must be taken into account in the calculation of the damage.
As for the…