Doha – Nashaat Amin:
The Court of Appeal has ordered a company to pay QAR 300,000 in compensation to the heirs of a worker who died after becoming trapped inside an animal feed mixer owned by the company.
The incident occurred when another worker, in violation of safety protocols, switched on the mixer while the deceased was inside cleaning it.
The case was initially brought before the Labor Disputes Settlement Committee, where both the claimants and the company’s legal representative appeared. The company’s representative submitted a memorandum requesting that the claim be dismissed due to the passage of time and arguing that the elements necessary for compensation were not present.
On April 8, the Committee ruled that the company must pay QAR 200,000 to the claimants as compensation for the death of their relative. Dissatisfied with the ruling, the claimants appealed, seeking to overturn the rejection of parts of their original claim and requesting an increase in compensation to QAR 5 million for both material and moral damages. They also requested the company be ordered to cover legal fees and court expenses.
During the appeal, Attorney Noors Sarhan represented the claimants. After a series of hearings, the Court of Appeal issued a final ruling awarding the heirs QAR 300,000 in total compensation.
The court explained that under Article 110(1) of the Labor Law, the heirs of a worker who dies as a result of a workplace incident are entitled to compensation, calculated in accordance with Islamic Sharia. This means the basis for determining such compensation must be derived from Islamic principles.
Islamic law holds that human life itself is beyond monetary valuation. However, it also recognizes that when a person dies—especially due to wrongful conduct—the loss of support and care that person provided to others is compensable. Compensation, therefore, is not for the life lost, but for the actual harm caused to surviving dependents, such as lost income or emotional suffering.
The ruling noted that the Qatari Civil Code incorporates these Sharia-based principles:
Article 199: Any wrongful act that causes harm to another obligates the perpetrator to provide compensation.
Article 201: Compensation should cover both actual losses and missed gains.
Article 202: Compensation includes both material and moral (non-material) damages.
Article 214: If the parties do not agree on compensation, the court determines it.
Article 216(1): The court determines compensation as it deems appropriate, based on the circumstances and as guided by Articles 201 and 202.
These provisions grant judges broad discretion to assess fair compensation that remedies all confirmed and direct damages, whether current or future. The court clarified that civil compensation is not tied to the Islamic concept of diyya (blood money), which is a fixed punitive sum for wrongful death or injury and serves a different legal purpose. Diyya is derived from religious texts and is considered a penalty, whereas civil compensation is based on actual harm.
The judgment concluded by awarding QAR 100,000 for moral damages, included within the total QAR 300,000, as a full and fair remedy for the loss suffered by the heirs.
