Marília Silva de Melo
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
The 4th Panel of the Superior Labor Court authorized the employer to deduct from the amount of the conviction for material damages, the amount paid exclusively by the company as life insurance, received by the employee’s family in the event of death.
For the panel, TST case law allows the deduction of compensation paid in a single installment if the employer has borne the cost of the life insurance installments alone.
In the case in question, filed by the widow of an employee who died as a result of an accident at work, the Employer was ordered to pay compensation for material damages, in addition to compensation for moral damages, due to the Employer’s civil liability for the accident.
In an ordinary appeal, the company argued that the family had already received part of the amount through the life insurance policy taken out. However, the Regional Court of the 11th Region rejected the argument on the grounds that the installments could not be deducted because they were of a different nature: the material damage resulted from the employer’s fault in the accident; and the life insurance installment resulted from death at work.
However, in the TST, the judge-rapporteur, Alexandre Ramos, overturned the decision and authorized the deduction of the amount received for the life insurance from the amount of material damage to which the employer had been condemned, basing his decision on the argument that the SAT insurance (Work Accident Insurance), provided for in article 7, item XXVIII, of the Federal Constitution, is an obligation of the company and destined for Social Security, but private life insurance is an option of the company and paid for exclusively by the employer.
For the rapporteur, the case law of the TST has already taken the position that life insurance is deductible from the condemnation of material damages due to an accident at work. “The deduction not only avoids the illicit enrichment of the family, but is also an incentive for companies to take out guarantees to protect employees subjected to risk at work and to take out insurance for their employees.”
