“Proof will be difficult”
In theory, this is possible, confirms my colleague Ernst Karner from the University of Vienna added: You could already sue for damages if you get infected from someone who has violated the mask requirement or the quarantine requirements.
However, causality is required in civil law. That means you would have to prove that you really got infected from this one person.
“It will be difficult to provide this evidence after we know that people who have been vaccinated can also infect others,” explains Karner. There are innumerable scenarios and protagonists that can lead to infection – the mere fact that unvaccinated people pass the virus more easily will not be enough.
In criminal law, in addition to bodily harm and killing, the offense of “endangering people from communicable diseases” would also be conceivable – here there is no need for concrete damage, the endangerment is sufficient.
Exit insurance
Civil lawyer Danner walks in S1-Journal even further: Liability insurance can be withdrawn if someone acts with gross negligence or even willfully. “Which is likely to be true in the case of unvaccinated people,” says Danner.
If unvaccinated people become ill themselves, additional insurance for medical treatment could be withdrawn for the same reason.
There could also be difficulties when it comes to rents: Danner describes an example of a multi-party apartment building in which there are vulnerable people who have to take the elevator and meet unvaccinated people there. Danner: “The question is whether they cannot ask their landlord to do something about it.” In other words: rental contracts could be terminated.