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19 March 2024

Dubai Court ruling has sponsors on 'debt' alert

The child handed over the envelope to Buhaira police station. (Magdy Iskandar))

Published
By Mohammad El Sadafy

The Dubai Court of Cassation has said that the right of a sponsor to claim debts paid for a person sponsored is restricted by the condition that the debt must be paid after the request and approval of the sponsored person.
 
Secondly, the sponsor has actually paid the debt amount and does not only claim to have done so.
 
According to the court ruling, if the sponsor paid the debt of the person under his sponsorship without his/her knowledge, it will be considered a donation.
 
The court added that in such a case the sponsor has no right to recover the debt paid from the person sponsored.
 
Based on these principles, the Dubai Court of Cassation accepted the case of a female doctor against a hospital which was paid Dh984,000 as compensation.
 
The court stressed that the case papers do not mention that the physician knew about an amount of compensation being taken on her behalf.
 
According to the case, a Saudi hospital filed a lawsuit against one of its female doctors (nationality not revealed) before the Civil Court in Dubai.

The hospital asked the court to compel the doctor to pay Dh984,000.

The hospital added that the physician was working as gynaecology consultant and she committed a medical error, resulting in cerebral palsy for a baby.
 
The hospital added due to such a medical mistake the forensic medical authority compelled her to pay the above amount.
 
The doctor left for the UAE, which forced the hospital to pay the amount to the child's father.
 
The Dubai Court of First Instance issued a verdict compelling the physician to pay the amount claimed, but the doctor appealed it before the Court of Appeal, which also rejected the appeal.

The defendant then challenged the judgment before the Court of Cassation which accepted it and based its ruling on the Articles 1056 and 1090 of the Civil Transactions Act 5 of 1985, which stipulates that the sponsor  has the right to claim debts paid for a person under sponsorship as restricted by the above two conditions.