The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) ordered the Colégio Triângulo, of the Federal District, to pay a life pension of a minimum salary per month to João Pedro Costa Santos, now 24 years old. The former student lost vision in his left eye after an accident at school in 2014, when he was still a teenager. The Court also maintained the payment of compensation for moral and aesthetic damage.
The accident interrupted João Pedro’s dream of becoming a military firefighter. He was 14 when a classmate threw a mechanical pencil at him, which hit him in the eye and caused permanent damage. The episode occurred while the student was under the responsibility of the educational establishment.
According to the decision, there was a failure on the part of the school because staff did not provide first aid properly or immediately refer the student for specialized medical care, which worsened the consequences of the injury.
Divergence of instances
At first instance, the school was ordered to pay compensation. The Federal District and Territorial Justice Court (TJDFT) upheld the conviction for moral and aesthetic damage, but rejected the request for a life pension, on the grounds that the young man could still carry out professional activities in the future.
For the TJDFT, the desire to pursue a career as a military firefighter — a profession incompatible with vision loss — would only represent an expectation, without the guarantee that the student will actually assume this role.
Understanding STJ
During the analysis of the appeal, the STJ reformed this point of the decision. For ministers, when a serious accident occurs during school age, a reduction in future working capacity must be assumed, even if the victim was not yet in paid employment at that time.
The rapporteur of the file, Minister João Otávio de Noronha, stressed that the right to a life pension, provided for by the Civil Code, only requires proof of a reduction in work capacity, and not proof that the victim was already working or that she would exercise a certain profession.
Based on this interpretation, the court set the lifetime pension at a minimum monthly salary, to be paid by the school to the former student.
The STJ also maintained the compensation values already defined by the lower courts: R$20,000 for moral damage and R$15,000 for aesthetic damage.
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