Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13
The Importance of the New Institution
of “Mediation” for the Civil Liability
of Veterinarians
L. Castelli, M. Russo, A. Giammanco, V. Quartarone, A. Fazio,
and A. Passantino
Abstract Veterinarians, by the nature of their occupation, deal with animals on a
daily basis and in a variety of contexts. The core of their activities involves the
provision of professional services, which are usually performed to the satisfaction
of both the animal and the owner. Not all of the interactions have the desired
outcome, however, and veterinarians who have been defendants in lawsuits find
themselves confronted with a wide variety of legal claims. Lawsuits that involve
the assessment of medical liability generally take a long time, and in recent years,
the number of court actions against veterinarians has increased. In view of this fact,
we examine legislative decree no. 28/2010, which also concerns civil proceedings
on liability in human medicine. We forecast that the new institution of “mediation”
could become an important instrument in hastening the resolution of court actions
concerning medical liability.
Keywords Civil law • Mediation • Professional liability • Veterinarian
13.1
Introduction
The veterinary, medical, and dental professions are defined in the Italian Civil Code
(c.c.) as “
intellectual
” (art. 2229 c.c.). When a veterinarian accepts the task of
treating an animal, he/she puts him/herself under an obligation to perform a specific
job for the owner, meaning that both the veterinarian and client (in this case, the
owner) stipulate a contract called “contract of intellectual work,” which involves
rights and mutual obligations (Panichi et al.
2002
,
2003
).
It should be emphasized that the obligations under which a veterinarian works
have special connotations because of the sensitive situations in which he/she often
L. Castelli • M. Russo • A. Giammanco • V. Quartarone • A. Fazio • A. Passantino (
*
)
Dipartimento di Sanit` Pubblica Veterinaria, Universit` degli Studi di Messina, Messina, Italy
e-mail:
passanna@unime.it
