Monetary damages

Hungarian learners of legal English find it especially difficult to translate and to explain the concepts of ‘kártérítés’, ‘kárpótlás’, ‘kártalanítás’, ‘sérelemdíj’, and ‘helytállás’ in English. In this lesson we are going to summarise the most important characteristics and meanings of ‘compensation’, ‘damages’, and ‘indemnification’, together with the most frequently used legal English terms for the abovementioned Hungarian words.

 Generally speaking, compensation is due to a legal or natural person who has been wronged or injured, which means that this person has incurred damage (kár), injury (sérülés), or loss (veszteség). However, several circumstances affect the outcome of the case.  The nature and the extent of the wrong, the injury, or the loss itself needs to be analysed and assessed, because these factors determine the kind of compensation the aggrieved party is entitled to claim and receive. Compensation includes all means by which a wronged party is remedied, hence its correct Hungarian translations include kárpótlás, kártalanítás, kártérítés, and sérelemdíj.

 Damages (always in plural and not the same as ‘damage’!) is a type of compensation when a certain amount of money is awarded (megítél) to someone who has been wronged or injured unlawfully. The unlawful nature of the act is therefore a prerequisite of damages being awarded.  If this requirement is missing, no damages (kártérítés) are awarded.

 The remedy (jogorvoslat) available when land is expropriated (kisajátít) by state authorities is a special issue. The conduct of the authority clearly constitutes an intentional act, loss is also suffered by the person whose property has been expropriated, but the act itself is not unlawful. This is when compensation is due, which is a more general term than damages, and which is translated in this case as ‘kártalanítás’ into Hungarian.

 Indemnity is another matter. Although indemnity can have the meaning of compensation in certain cases, it is not its first meaning. Indemnity is an undertaking by an insurance service provider to protect somebody against future damage, loss, or injury. In other words, it is an obligation to insure (biztosít) a person against certain harmful events in return for a fee called a premium (biztosítási díj). Thus, indemnity can be the English equivalent of ‘helytállás’, and the amount paid under this obligation can be called ‘indemnification’ (helytállási kötelezettség alapján fizetett összeg).