A glance of the Civil Liability Insurance of the Owners of Land Transport Motor Vehicles (Third Party Liability) in Implementation of The Islamic Penal Law

Civil liability insurance of owners of land transport motor vehicles against third parties.

According to the Provisions of the Article one of the Law of Compulsory Third Party Liability Insurance, all the owners of land transport motor vehicles and all kinds of tuggers and trailers attached to the mentioned vehicles and railway trains are liable for damages to persons and properties incurred by third parties as a result of the accidents of such vehicles of consignments thereof and are obligated to insure their liability in this respect with one of the Iranian insurance companies.
Therefore, the damages resulting from the aforesaid vehicles are classified into the two following groups:

1- Damages to persons

By virtue of Article 3 of the executive regulations of the Third Party Liability Insurance Law, compensation of damage to persons as provided under Article 1 of the Law, means indemnification of third parties for the treatment expenses of physical damage or injuries resulting from traffic accidents as well as indemnities for failure and deficiency of body members, permanent, absolute or relative disablement or death resulting from accidents covered by insurance.
Therefore,the insurer indemnifies damages to persons under the three following titles:
A- Expenses for treatment of physical damage or injury.
B- Indemnity for failure and deficiency of body members, permanent, absolute or relative disablement.
C- Indemnity for death.
The amount of damages to persons should be determined on the basis of the court judgement having due regard to the Islamic Penal Law.

2- Damages to properties

Article 4 of the above mentioned executive regulations provides: “Indemnity for damages to properties consists of the provision and compensation for direct losses resulting from accidents covered by insurance, to the objects and properties under the ownership or legal possession of individuals.”

Blood-Money(Dieh)

“Dieh” has been defined under Article 294 of Islamic Penal Law ratified in 1991 by the Islamic Consultative Assembly as follows: "Dieh (Blood-Money) is a property to be submitted to the crime victim or to his/her Blood-Guardian or Guardians (Owliae-Dam)due to a crime committed against his/her life or the members of his/her body.
“Dieh” is therefore a property prescribed for indemnifying the homicide or physical damage and injury (provided that it is not intentional or it is one of the intentional cases which is not subject to Retaliation (Ghessass). (1) Thus, in case a person having no intention of murder, takes an action as a result of which a murder takes place or a body injury is incurred or such events occur in consequence of his/her daily activities, he/she must pay the blood-money (Dieh). Traffic accidents are among the instances which will cause the payment of “Dieh”. Holder of a motor vehicle is liable for the loss and damage which may be incurred by third parties as a result of using such vehicle. The Law of Compulsory Civil Liability Insurance for owners of land transport motor vehicles against third parties has been enacted for the same purpose. Insurance companies, by increasing their minimum obligations under motor vehicle third party insurance policies are making an effort to provide their insured(s) with the necessary coverage according to the Islamic Penal Law.
On the Basis of Article 297 of the Islamic Penal Law the Blood-money (Dieh) for the murder of a moslem man will be paid according to one of the six methods provided under this Article or the equivalent thereof in Rials, at the choice of the murderer (guilty for the accident). According to Article 301 of the same law, "Dieh" for a moslem man and for a moslem woman is identical as long as the amount of "Dieh" reaches one third of complete "Dieh" in which case the women "Dieh" should be a half of the men "Dieh".
At the present time, the amount of complete "Dieh" in Rials for a moslem man is announced annually by the judicial authorities. In addition to the above cases, in accordance with Article 299 of the Islamic Penal Law, in case the injury and death both occur during one of the four lunar holy months of Rajab, Zighadeh, Zihajjeh and Moharram or inside the Holy Shrine of Mecca, one third of any of the six instances (or the equivalent thereof in Rials) which may be chosen, should be added to the amount of "Dieh" as an aggravation of punishment. According to the insurance regulations, in case several persons are dead or suffer from physical damage due to traffic accidents and the person who has caused such damage will be sentenced to pay several blood-money (Dieh) or damages, the insurer should be obligated and should indemnify all the victims for their losses. In traffic accidents the victims may be inside or outside the insured motor vehicle;

Victims inside the insured motor vehicle:

For the victims inside the motor vehicle, the maximum obligation of the insurer is limited to the permitted capacity of the motor vehicle. Therefore, whenever all passengers of the insured motor vehicle are dead, maximum payment liability of the insurer should be the payment of "Dieh" in the number of permitted capacity and for the passengers beyond permitted capacity, the insurer should have no liability.

Indemnity for failure and deficiency of body members:

Under the Islamic Penal Law, Blood-money (Dieh) has been prescribed for different cases of failure and deficiency of body members.The amount of "Dieh" for failure and deficiency of body members is in some cases equivalent to the complete "Dieh" and in some other cases lower or higher. For the cases where the extent of "Dieh" is not determined, an indemnity is fixed under the title of "Arsh", having regard to the inflicted injury and the opinion declared by the coroner.