Study On The Sequence Of Personal Injury Compensation Claims Paid Off In Bankcruptcy Proceedings

“Sanlu” incident occurred in2008drew wide discussion about the question ofthe personal injury compensation claims during the bankruptcy proceedings in legalprofession. A lot of articles contends that the sequence of the personal injurycompensation claims in bankruptcy proceedings should be brought forward to securesocial fairness and human rights. A similar case (a case of an explosion of ElectricalHeating oil heater of HuaSheng electrical co.) occurred almost10years ago that thepersonal injury compensation claims could not be satisfied in legal proceedings due tothe bankruptcy of the corporation, while an opinion that the sequence of the personalinjury compensation claims should be brought forward was published aiming at thiscase, however which did not drew more attention from legal profession. The similarcase came to show again10years later, the question of the personal injurycompensation claims in bankruptcy proceedings became prominent and triggered alarge scale of research from multi angle in legal profession. This paper aims atexploring the question of sequence of the personal injury compensation claims duringbankruptcy proceedings and settling the problem of insufficient protection of thepersonal injury compensation claims in bankruptcy proceedings through constructinga reasonable system.This paper applies syn-analysis method, comparative-analysis method andempirical-analysis method, which pays attention to deep analysis and discussion ofthe positioning of personal injury compensation claims, of the scope of paying off thepersonal injury compensation claims in bankruptcy proceedings and of the sequenceof paying off the personal injury compensation claims in bankruptcy proceedings.Based on this, this paper continue to come up with system conception. According topublic policy surroundings of Bankruptcy Law, the nature of personal injurycompensation, the status of the creditor and the practice of the enterprise bankruptcyin our country, the personal injury compensation claims should be endowed priority inthe sequence of all claims paid off in bankruptcy proceedings. Considering the conflict and balance of the personal injury compensation claims as bankruptcy prioritywith other bankruptcy priority, the items of the personal injury compensation claimsshould be classified into urgent items and long-term items, with which need to bedealt differently.The paper is divided into five parts.The first chapter mainly analyzes the definition of the personal injurycompensation claims and the way to protect it, in order to distinguish the similarconception used in existing research such as personal tort claims, customer claims anddemonstrate the necessity of studying the sequence of paying off the personal injurycompensation claims through combing the way to protect it.The second chapter occupied theoretical analysis on priority of sequence ofpersonal injury compensation claims in bankruptcy proceedings. This chapter firstlyanalyzes and summarizes the legislative basis of bankruptcy priority; secondlyanalyzes the foundation of the personal injury compensation claims as bankruptcypriority: the personal injury compensation claims accord with the public policy ofsetting up bankruptcy priority as well as claim’s attribute and creditor’s positionwhich bankruptcy priority demands, at the same time the priority should be endowedto personal injury compensation claims for practice of enterprise bankruptcy; finallyanalyzes the irrationality of the existing sequence of the personal injury compensationclaims in bankruptcy proceedings. There are two defects in the existing legislation ofthe sequence of paying off bankruptcy claims: one is that the existing equal paying offnorm is “simple” equal logic, the other one is that the absolute priority of securedclaims harms fairness and efficiency.The third chapter explores the scope of the personal injury compensation claimsbeing paid off prior. This part firstly divides the function of items of the personalinjury compensation in order to definite the scope of the personal injury compensationclaims exactly after being well aware of the different function of the different items.Based on function division, the mental damage compensation, punitive damages anddeath compensation should be excluded from the scope of the personal injurycompensation being paid off prior. The fourth chapter analyzes the concrete sequence of the personal injurycompensation and constructs a comparative specific scheme about sequence of payingoff bankruptcy claims. This chapter firstly proceeds a comparative analysis about theforeign relative legislation and theoretical research as well as analyzes and evaluatescurrent theoretical scheme about the sequence of the personal injury compensationclaims in China, which provides reference for constructing new plan in this paper;then it classifies the items of the personal injury compensation into urgent items andlong-term items, which should be dealt with differently. Considering the distinction oflarge scale personal tort and non-large scale personal tort, this chapter also deals withthem differently in order to the scheme would be reasonable and operative.The fifth chapter provides legislative proposition about the prior sequence ofthe personal injury compensation claims from tort law angle and bankruptcy lawangle in that the protection of the personal injury compensation claims could cometrue and the fairness and human rights could be secured.