LVictims of criminal offenses (e.g. intentional injury) who have suffered serious bodily injury can be compensated by the Guarantee Fund for Victims of Acts of Terrorism and Other Offenses (FGTI). To do this, they must contact a victims’ compensation commission. of offenses (CIVI), which will determine the amount to be allocated to them.
When they have not initiated criminal proceedings, they only have three years after the date of the offense to act, under penalty ofe “foreclosure”says the article 706-5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
If they were minors at the time of the events and their parents did not file a CIVI, can they act when they reach the age of majority? This is the question posed by the following case.
On January 12, 2011, Mr.she X, almost 13 years old, was seriously burned at the basilica of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). According to the testimonies of two comrades, she was praying for the sick mother of one of them, when her vest caught fire on contact with a candle holder (candles enclosed in containers) placed behind her. Although a man tried to put out the fire with his coat, the injuries are serious, and the after-effects will be significant (permanent functional deficit estimated at 45%, including 10% psychologically, due to an anxiety syndrome). -depressive).
M’s mothershe * “ abnormal position ». She is not considering contacting a CIVI, complaining about the absence of fire extinguishers, even though they are obligatory in establishments open to the public, under the terms of the construction and housing code.
Lack of fire extinguishers
It was only in 2018, seven years after the tragedy, that Mshe X, having come of age, does so. Considering himself the victim of a “offense of unintentional injury”, she requests a provision of 190,000 euros. The FGTI opposes it, maintaining that it is “foreclosed”.
The young woman’s lawyer disputes this: he assures that the deadline of article 706-5 is ” suspended “ during the minority of victims. This is what the Court of Cassation has ruled on several occasions (97-10.555, 98-10.235, 00-18.149), for the benefit of children who have been injured or whose parents have been murdered.
She started from the principle that“no text excludes the application, within the time limit of article 706-5 of the code of criminal procedure, of the suspension of the limitation period” provided for by the civil code (article 2252 old, 2235 new).
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