In the early seventies, a woman was placed in foster care by the municipality. In December 2021, she filed a lawsuit for, among other things, sexual abuse that allegedly took place in the foster care during that time. In the trial before the district court, she claims that the municipality should pay SEK 300,000 in immaterial damages. She refers to the fact that the municipality has failed to fulfil its supervisory responsibility and violated her rights under the European Convention.
Like the district court and the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court concludes that the claim for damages is time-barred.
According to the Limitation Act, a claim is time-barred ten years after it has arisen unless the limitation period is interrupted before then. In the judgment, the Supreme Court reports on how the application of the Limitation Act relates to the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Of importance in the case is the right to compensation in the event of a violation of the European Convention that has developed in case law since 2005, a right to damages that thus exists without an explicit legal basis. This right to damages is based on Sweden's obligation under the Convention to provide an effective legal remedy to prevent or compensate for violations.
New case law may have an impact not only on the future, but also on things that have happened in the past. The question that the Supreme Court had to answer was therefore from which date the limitation period for the claim for damages commence in a case such as the present, where the legal situation has progressively developed and clarified through case law of the courts.
The judgment states that the right to convention damages that has been developed in case law has been justified precisely by the need for Sweden to meet the requirement laid down in the convention on access to an effective legal remedy. Due to the development of Swedish law, the European Court of Human Rights has established that since 3 December 2009 there has been a generally applicable principle in Swedish law that permit damages to be awarded for a violation of the Convention.
According to the Supreme Court, that date should also form the starting point for the limitation period when, as in this case, a claim is based on an earlier violation of the European Convention.
Since the limitation period had not been interrupted and the action was not brought until December 2021, the claim for damages is time-barred and could no longer be enforced.
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"The foster home placement"
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