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View profileBook an appointmentAdvice from your lawyers in Québec City, Lévis and Montmagny: are you suing for damages? The deadline to sue is generally three years, or one year for defamation. In some cases, the law requires you to send a notice within days after your problem arises.
Consult a lawyer quickly to confirm the deadlines that apply to your case.
Definition of civil liability
Civil liability is the legal principle under which a person must compensate others for the harm caused by their wrongful acts (or omissions), or by those of persons or things for which they are responsible.
Unlike criminal law, which is punitive, civil liability does not aim to punish the person at fault, but rather to compensate the victim’s loss. The amount of damages paid to the victim is therefore assessed not according to the seriousness of the fault, but according to the injury actually suffered.
Extra-contractual civil liability, the subject of this article, refers to civil liability situations that arise when there is no contract between the victim and the person at fault.
Quebec law distinguishes between situations where there is a contract and situations where there is none.
When the breach alleged is a failure to perform an obligation arising from a contract, the liability is called contractual and is subject to rules that differ from those described in this article.
Extra-contractual civil liability is divided into several distinct legal regimes, which can be grouped into three categories:
- Liability for one’s own acts
- Liability for the acts of others
- Liability for the act of things
Liability for one’s own acts
Liability for one’s own acts is the most direct liability regime: a person must compensate others for the harm caused by their own acts (or omissions). This liability regime arises from the first two paragraphs of article 1457 of the Civil Code of Québec.
The burden of proof under this article requires that the following three elements be shown:
- a civil fault;
- an injury;
- a causal connection between the fault and the injury.
1. Civil fault
For a civil fault to be found, two elements must be present: (1) a breach of the general duty of care (2) by a person endowed with reason, that is, a person capable of understanding the scope and consequences of their acts.
A breach of the general duty of care is assessed against the standard of the reasonably prudent and diligent person. This standard evolves and is constantly redefined by the courts over time, as the customs and practices of our society change. Certain acts once considered harmless may now be a departure from the current standard of the reasonable person.
The concept of a person endowed with reason is meant to protect people who lack the awareness needed to control the harm they cause to others. Examples include a very young child or a person with an intellectual impairment that affects their ability to reason.
2. Injury
Injury is the harm suffered by the victim of a wrongful act.
There are three types of injury: material, moral or bodily.
2.1 Material injury
Material injury includes, for example, the loss of or damage to property, the loss of a sum of money, a business’s loss of income, customers or sales, the loss of a job, etc.
2.2 Moral injury
Moral injury refers to non-pecuniary injury (which is not a loss of money or of an asset with monetary value).
More specifically, moral injury includes the grief, sadness, stress, anxiety, and general trouble and inconvenience the victim may have suffered because of another person’s fault (provided that the fault does not consist of an infringement of a person’s physical integrity).
2.3 Bodily injury
Bodily injury is injury resulting from an infringement of a person’s physical integrity. It includes physical injuries (loss of a limb or an organ, bodily harm), a person’s psychological injuries (pain, stress, anxiety, sadness) and material losses, to the extent they are related to an infringement of physical integrity.
3. Causal connection
The last element of the burden of proof required for a person to be held liable is the causal connection (also called the causal link). This last criterion requires proof of the cause-and-effect relationship between the injury suffered by the victim and the fault committed.
Proof of the causal connection between the injury suffered and the fault committed is sometimes implicit in the proof of the injury. In other cases, however, proving the causal connection can be very technical (in particular when several external factors could have caused the injury suffered).
Liability for the acts of others
The second category of extra-contractual civil liability is liability for the acts of others. Under these regimes, certain persons can, if certain circumstances are present, be held liable for the acts or omissions of a person under their responsibility.
The regimes of liability for the acts of others are the following:
- Article 1459 of the Civil Code of Québec: liability of the person having parental authority (usually the parent) for the acts or omissions of their minor child (whether or not endowed with reason);
- Article 1460 of the Civil Code of Québec: liability of the person entrusted with the custody, supervision or education of a minor child (whether or not endowed with reason) for the minor’s acts or omissions;
- Article 1461 of the Civil Code of Québec: liability of a person who acts as tutor, curator or otherwise has custody of a person of full age who is not endowed with reason, for that person’s acts or omissions, if it is proven that the custodian personally committed an intentional or gross fault in exercising custody;
- Article 1463 of the Civil Code of Québec: liability of the principal (that is, the employer or another person with a power of control) for the fault committed by its agent or servant (an employee or other subordinate) in the performance of their duties.
Liability for the act of things
The last category of extra-contractual civil liability is liability for the act of things.
The regimes of liability for the act of things are the following:
- Article 1465 of the Civil Code of Québec: liability of the custodian of a movable or immovable thing for the autonomous act of that thing;
- Article 1466 of the Civil Code of Québec: liability of the owner or user of an animal for the act of that animal;
- Article 1467 of the Civil Code of Québec: liability of the owner of an immovable for its ruin (total or partial);
- Articles 1468-1469 of the Civil Code of Québec: liability of the manufacturer, distributor or supplier of a movable thing for injury caused to a third person by a safety defect in that thing.
Prescription period
The action a victim can bring against the person responsible for their injury is based on what is called a personal right.
In most cases, the applicable prescription period, that is, the time within which the victim must bring their action, is the one set out in article 2925 of the Civil Code of Québec: three years from the time the injury occurs or, in some cases, from the time the victim becomes aware of it.
You should, however, be very careful in this area, because in certain circumstances the law provides for prescription periods that are shorter or longer than the one mentioned above. We therefore recommend that you consult us without delay when a problem arises.
Note: The information above is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. For advice on your particular legal situation, feel free to contact one of our lawyers in Québec City or Lévis.
