RJ: French doctor who attacked doorman will have to pay R$50,000 in compensation

French doctor Gilles David Teboul was ordered to pay R$50,000 in compensation for moral damages to doorman Reginaldo Silva de Lima. According to the complaint presented to the Court, the foreigner physically attacked and committed racial insults against the worker in the building where he lived, in Copacabana, in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro.

The doctor had already been ordered in the first instance to pay R$10,000. However, the doorman appealed against the stipulated amount. In the trial, held this Wednesday (10), the judges unanimously followed the vote of the rapporteur, judge Juarez Fernandes, and increased the amount of compensation.

“It is concluded that the sentence that is intended to be modified was handed down in a manner contrary to the prevailing jurisprudence regarding the tiny amount arbitrated as a quantum of compensation, deserving reform only in this particular aspect, maintaining the other terms of the sentence for all its foundations . For these reasons, I vote to partially grant the appeal solely to increase the moral damages from R$10,000 to R$50,000, maintaining the other terms of the sentence for all its reasons”, said the judge.

In his vote, however, the rapporteur denied the doorman's request to order the doctor to pay R$ 6,000, as material damages, for changing his routine of transportation expenses and other expenses after the attacks.

“The expenses mentioned in the initial statement, relating to fuel expenses, credit card bills and unpaid payments, do not demonstrate the necessary causal link with the attacks perpetrated by the defendant”, he defined.

On June 22, 2022, irritated after finding that the elevator in the building where he lived was faulty, the doctor began to offend the doorman, saying that he was not capable of working as a doorman. According to the records, the foreigner told the worker that he was “a black, monkey”. Reginaldo was also attacked by Gilles with punches.