Liability for success
Liability for success is in German private law an exception to the fundamentally prevailing fault liability and thus stands for liability without fault . If damage or an unlawful condition occurs through no fault (so-called success occurs), it is based on chance in the sense of the right . In contrast to the liability for fault must debtor the injured party is not therefore damage replace because he was too due to its fault represented has, but whether he can be accused of one of their own.
A distinction is made between simple coincidence , as regulated in § 350 BGB for cases of accidental loss in the right of withdrawal or in § 848 BGB in the case of the withdrawal of an item and force majeure , as it is in travel contract law ( § 651j BGB) or in the law of the innkeeper ( § 701 BGB) is regulated. Force majeure does not already exist in the case of no fault, rather an "extraordinary event" must occur which, under the otherwise given circumstances, could not have been avoided even with the greatest care.
Outside of existing contractual obligations , no fault liability is only used in a few exceptional cases of strict liability , for which the term `` success liability '' is occasionally used synonymously, and for liability in the event of accidental debtor default in accordance with Section 287 of the German Civil Code (BGB ). This includes in particular the liability bases of § 833 BGB ( animal owner liability ) and special laws such as the Mining Act , the Atomic Energy Act or the Environmental Liability Act .
From a legal historical point of view, success liability is older than the liability for fault that is predominantly applicable today. In earlier legal systems, such as ancient oriental or early medieval law, success liability was also common in criminal law . There, too, the guilt of the perpetrator is important for the criminal liability of an act as well as for the determination of the sentence .
