In July 2025, 56 year old Granny Yin (pseudonym) collided with a motorcycle driven by Mr. Yin, causing damage to both vehicles and injuries to two people. The traffic police department issued a "Road Traffic Accident Identification Certificate", which identified Granny Yin as the primary responsible party and Mr. Yin as the secondary responsible party. After appraisal, the judicial appraisal institution issued an appraisal opinion that Granny Yin suffered multiple rib fractures in her left chest due to a traffic accident, constituting a level 10 disability.

Grandma Yin has been taking care of her two grandchildren at her son's house, but now there is a traffic accident and no one is taking care of them, resulting in additional losses. She demands that Mr. Yin compensate for the lost wages.

Yin believes that Grandma Yin has reached the statutory retirement age, and helping her daughter take care of her child is an obligation to assist, without any salary income, and does not constitute a loss of lost wages. Both parties failed to reach a consensus on compensation, so Grandma Yin filed a lawsuit with the Yunxi District People's Court in Yueyang City, demanding that Yin compensate for multiple losses, including lost wages, totaling over 140000 yuan.

After trial, the court believes that the focus of the dispute in this case is whether it can support Granny Yin's lost wages. The compensation item for lost wages in personal injury compensation aims to compensate for the loss of labor benefits caused by the victim's infringement, and is not solely determined by whether the victim has received social labor wage income. Although Grandma Yin was 56 years old at the time of the accident and did not engage in paid social labor, she did not lose her ability to work. Prior to the accident, she had long been responsible for taking care of her grandchildren and other household services. This part of household labor objectively replaced market-oriented services such as home economics and childcare, and had corresponding labor benefits and value. The case involved a traffic accident that resulted in personal injury to Grandma Yin. She was unable to continue with her original family care tasks for a certain period of time, and the family needed to increase expenses to replace personnel to take care of their children, causing a real reduction in her family's labor interests. This damage result has a direct causal relationship with the infringing behavior involved in the case. The court has determined at its discretion that the loss of wages claimed by Grandma Yin is 8650.19 yuan.

This case is a liability dispute for a motor vehicle traffic accident. If a motor vehicle causes personal injury or property damage in a road traffic accident, the insurance company shall first compensate within the limit of the compulsory traffic insurance. If the amount exceeds the limit, the insurance company that underwrites the three liability insurance shall bear the compensation liability. If it is still insufficient or has not purchased commercial motor vehicle insurance, the infringer shall compensate. Article 16 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Cases of Compensation for Damage Caused by Road Traffic Accidents stipulates that if a motor vehicle that has not been legally insured with compulsory traffic insurance causes damage in a traffic accident, and the party requests the insured obligor to compensate within the scope of the compulsory traffic insurance liability limit, the people's court shall support it. Both Grandma Yin and Mr. Yin in this case did not purchase compulsory traffic insurance. Grandma Yin's losses should be compensated by Mr. Yin within the limit of compulsory traffic insurance for more than 130000 yuan, and losses outside of compulsory traffic insurance should be compensated by Mr. Yin according to 30% of the traffic accident liability ratio. Regarding Yin's property loss, Grandma Yin should bear it first within the limit of the compulsory insurance property loss. After deduction, Yin should compensate Granny Yin for a total loss of over 120000 yuan.

After the first instance verdict, Yin appealed against it, but the second instance court rejected the appeal and upheld the original verdict.

This article is transferred from the WeChat official account "Shandong Gaofa". Thank you!