Study On The Sharing Of Tort Liability For Damages Caused By Gang Melee

There has been few studies on the compensation for victims’losses caused by gang melee for a long time. But in recent years, with the increase of the rights consciousness of people, the compensation cases caused by gang melee are gradually increasing, and the controversy on how to share the losses, or the tort liability becomes more and more obvious. These controversies mainly focus on the range of identified tortfeasors, the legal basis of assuming obligations for the damages between perpetrators and victims and other aspects. Therefore, it is necessary to do some research on the share of tort liability for losses or damages caused by gang melee.This paper mainly studies on how to share the damage among the perpetrators and between the perpetrators and victims. The text can be divided into three parts: the first part points out the tort law characteristics of gang melee. That is, each party has two or more participators who are not definitely the tortfeasors; the behaviors of the perpetrators and the victims are both against the law; all the tortfeasors have the cause-effect relationship with a same damage; the object of tort is limited to the rights of life, health, and body.The second part discusses the share of tort liability among the perpetrators. It firstly interprets the legal basis for assuming obligations among perpetrators from the necessity of the interest protection for victims and the validity of sharing the damage consequences among perpetrators. Secondly, on the basis of the classification of the perpetrators, it defines the scope and type of perpetrators by analyzing the principle and causal relationship of tort liability of gang melee, and thus, analyzes liability forms of various perpetrators with the combination of existing form of tort liability theory. With the standard of the equivalent causal relationship it can be determined that one of the victims, who plays the role of organizing, plotting and leading in a melee holds an indirect intent mind for the damages which may occur to his own companions. So his behavior has equivalent causal relation with the damages suffered by the victims. While those who follow the melee activities, have no equivalent causal relation with these damages, although there is negligence and faults in their behavior. And persons of the opposing gang have equivalent causal relation with these damages, for they all holds an intent mind, that is, scienter and desire for the damages.The third part discusses the share of tort liability among the victims. It mainly demonstrates the validity of adopting contributory negligence in this type of tort liability sharing by explaining the composition and legal basis of contributory negligence. And then the author proposes that the victims should assume the damages they suffered themselves, but because of the presence of tort liability of the perpetrators, they can shift the liability upon the perpetrators. Meanwhile, the illegal nature of the victim’s behavior, to some extent, increases the tortfeasors’ burden out of tort liability. According to the principle of fairness, the damages caused by victims should not be shifted upon the perpetrators, leaving them for victims.In conclusion, this paper puts forward with the basic rules of tort liability sharing for losses or damages caused by gang melee---Firstly, to determine the liability of the offender party, we should apply the faulty principle between perpetrators and victims, and consider the perpetrators as a whole. Secondly, taking the victims as the base, the tortfeasors can be divided into two parts---one from the injured party and another from the offender party. And then according to the principle of "blamable standard first, causal standard second", we can determine how to share the liability between all the tortfeasors from the injured party and the offender party, both sharing the jointly and severally liability to victims in their respective entirety. Finally, in accordance with the principle of "causal standard first, blamable standard second", we can determine how to share the liability within both parties.