Gross Negligence as the Cause of Liability in the Context of Act on Tortious Liability of Officials B.E. 1996

Abstract

          When there is a damage occurred in the state agency, and there is a rational evidence which can be proved that the damage was caused by an official, the state agency will set up a committee to investigate the fact of tortious liability in order to investigate who caused the damage no matter with or without intentionally act or negligence which will bring about a wrongful act. If the committee found out that the damage was caused by an intentionally act or gross negligence, the official must be responsible for compensatory damages for the loss of state agency’s property imposed by the administrative order. Failure to comply with the order will result as assets seizure to repay the state agency’s loss. However, if the committee found out that the damage was caused by unintentionally negligence, the official does not have to be responsible for any compensation. The important point is what activities are considering as gross negligence according to the Act on Tortious Liability of Officials B.E. 1996 which is becoming a controversial topic to discuss on the state agency’s consideration.

         The study found that according to the Supreme Administrative Court’s judgement, gross negligence’s characteristics in the context of government official can be described as willful behavior done with extreme disregard for the duty, safety, caution, related rules and order of the state agency. However, the official who posed with all mentioned characteristic, sometimes has commit with a careful act and somehow could not prevent the damage occurred. Therefore, the study suggests that to consider the case whether or not the act is considered as gross negligence or negligence, the administrative jury who involved in the tortious liability should explore and study the judgement of the Supreme Administrative Court or Court of Justice to support your decision in making judgement with justice to bring about an effective decision in working at state agency.