Greek Administrative Court Rules State Liable for Covid-19 Vaccine Side Effects Due to "Excessive Sacrifice"

The action was brought by a claimant seeking compensation for material and moral damage (non-economic damage), alleging that they had suffered serious side effects following their preventive COVID-19 vaccination with a specific vaccine. The initial claim was for €461,835.26, but this amount was subsequently limited during the proceedings.

The claimant based his claim on two legal grounds:

Article 105 of the Preliminary Act to the Civil Code (EισNAK): This article deals with the State’s liability for damages resulting from unlawful acts or omissions committed by its bodies in the exercise of public authority.

Article 4(5) of the Constitution: This article deals with the State’s liability for lawful acts causing disproportionate suffering to citizens, based on the principle of equality of public burdens and social solidarity.
The Court's ruling on the main ground (Article 105 EισNAK – Unlawful act/omission):

The claimant argued that the National Vaccination Committee acted unlawfully by allowing the vaccination of persons with their specific medical condition with the vaccine in question, despite limited medical data and without a fully confirmed list of side effects. They also alleged an unlawful failure to guide them towards a safer vaccine and a failure on the part of the doctor to inform them adequately or to advise against vaccination.

The Court dismissed this main complaint in the action as unfounded, holding the following:

The vaccine had a central marketing authorisation from the European Commission following a thorough review by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and was not experimental. Conditional marketing authorisations were not temporary or emergency authorisations, but were granted under strict conditions.

It was not proven that another vaccine would have been safer in the claimant's specific case.
No unlawful omission by the vaccinating doctor or insufficient information to the claimant was proven due to the lack of supporting evidence (such as the medical order).
Since none of the alleged unlawful acts or omissions were substantiated, the conditions for liability under Article 105 of the EisNAK were not met.
The Court’s decision on the supplementary basis (Article 4(5) of the Constitution – Liability for lawful acts):

The Court accepted the ancillary plea in law of the action, alleging that the Greek State was liable for damages resulting from its lawful acts when these constituted a disproportionate sacrifice for the injured party, exceeding the reasonable threshold of tolerance and social solidarity.

In this specific case, the claimant’s development of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) was considered to be a unique and significant damage exceeding this threshold.
Based on a reassessment of the incident's "yellow card" report, the National Medicines Organisation (EOΦ) assessed the likelihood of a correlation between the adverse reaction and the vaccination as "Probable" according to the World Health Organisation criteria.
No other intervening unlawful act or omission (e.g. a defective preparation or deficiencies during vaccination) was identified.
Consequently, the liability of the Greek State was directly established under Article 4(5) of the Constitution.
Ruling:

The Court held that the applicant, by analogy with Article 932 of the Civil Code, should only be awarded reasonable financial compensation for the non-pecuniary damage suffered (non-economic damage) of EUR 50,000.