MOSCOW, October 8 (RAPSI) — The Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction has agreed that the compensation of nonpecuniary harm caused to the children, who lost their father in a plane crash, needs to be increased. The lack of awareness of the moral harm caused to them does not mean that there was no such harm of it was insignificant, the court says.

The applicant turned to courts seeking compensation of moral harm allegedly suffered in the result of the death of her husband and father of minor children on February 11, 2018 in the crash of the AN-148 aircraft belonging to Saratov Airlines.

The court of first instance ruled that each victim was to be paid 600,000 rubles (about $2,000 at the current exchange rate); however, this decision was overturned by the appellate instance, which considered that the district court failed to properly justify the amount of compensation and did not fully assess the circumstances of the incident, the degree of moral and physical suffering of the applicant and the minor children of the deceased, concluding that it was necessary to increase the compensation for moral damage suffered to 1 million rubles (about $14,000) with respect to each victim.

The respondent did not agree with the increase in compensation and filed a cassation appeal, stating that the children, due to their age, did not realize the significance of the loss, and the youngest child was born after the death of the father.

Having studied the arguments of the parties, the higher court dismissed the cassation appeal of the respondent.