In the underlying case of the decision, a hind dashed against a car and the driver sued the hunters’ society for damages. The court that delivered the final decision rejected the claim by stating that according to the case law applicable at the time of adjudicating the case the affected parties had to bear their own risks in the absence of culpability. However, the statutory regulation in force at the time of the collision regulated differently by allocating the liability for damages to the hunters’ society that had the right to hunt. Accordingly, the problem in the case concerned was that the statutory provisions in force when the damage was done were contrary to the case law referred to in the final decision.
The Constitutional Court holds that the court procedure neglecting, without reasoning, the legal regulation in force violated the fundamental right to fair court proceedings because the lack of reasoning came along with judicial “arbitrariness”. The court indeed acted arbitrarily when, instead of the applicable legal norms in force, it took into account a case law the underlying legal norms of which had already been annulled by the lawmaker earlier.
The Constitutional Court also established that a judicial judgement, which neglects the law in force without a due ground to do so, is arbitrary and it is incompatible with the principle of the rule of law. Based on the above, the Constitutional Court established that the judgement was contrary to the Fundamental Law and annulled it.
Judges Dr. Egon Dienes-Oehm, Dr. Ildikó Marosi and dr. László Salamon attached dissenting opinions to the decision.