In a situation where the person entitled to maintenance cannot obtain them due to the death of the person obliged to pay them, the person responsible for the damage should pay compensation in the form of a pension. Such a pension compensates for damage suffered by a person entitled to maintenance as a result of the death of an obliged person by losing maintenance due to him from the deceased.
The amount of compensation should correspond to the amount of lost maintenance obligations.
Due to this, a person towards whom the deceased had a statutory maintenance obligation may demand a pension from the person liable for compensation. This pension should be calculated according to the needs of the injured party and the earning and property possibilities of the deceased. Its payment should cover the duration of the likely duration of the maintenance obligation.
If required by the rules of social coexistence, the same pension may be demanded by other relatives to whom the deceased voluntarily and constantly provided means of subsistence. It is worth emphasizing that the right to a maintenance allowance is a personal claim of each of the entitled persons and should be determined for each of them separately.
Pursuant to the case-law (Supreme Court judgment of 18 January 1974 reference number I CR 746/73), maintenance is not due to the spouse because of the death of the other spouse, if he has full capacity to work and is not burdened with the obligation to raise minor children , even if he was supporting his deceased spouse during his lifetime. However, if the surviving spouse cannot take up paid work or is forced to resign from work because of the obligation to raise minor children, the surviving spouse may be entitled to a maintenance allowance. A similar situation occurs in the case of a widow who was pregnant on the day of her husband’s death.