The Supreme Court ruled on an appeal lodged against a decision by the Court of Appeal of La Serena on 24 October 2001 that confirmed the ruling of a first-instance judge accepting a civil action and declaring that the State treasury must pay, as reparation for moral damages, a certain amount of money to the relatives of a man who had died in a military precinct on 16 October 1973. The Supreme Court accepted the appeal, indicating that when pronouncing and then confirming the obligation to compensate for the damages caused, the previous judges had erred since the civil action was actually statute-barred at the time when it was brought. Therefore, the sentence appealed against was declared null and void and a new sentence was dictated.

In this new sentence, the Supreme Court referred to Articles 129, 130 and 131 of the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, and stated that they were not applicable in this case in particular because they dealt with criminal and not with civil or patrimonial liability. The Court also mentioned Protocol I and indicated that its provisions were not applicable either in this case because it was ratified by Chile only in 1991 and could therefore not be applied to situations that occurred in 1973.

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References: International Treaties and Documents
Third Geneva Convention 1949: Art. 129 , 130 and 131 .