Lim Kok Leong v Yong Wai Lai
Judge | Toh Yung Cheong |
Judgment Date | 18 February 2022 |
Neutral Citation | [2022] SGDC 32 |
Citation | [2022] SGDC 32 |
Court | District Court (Singapore) |
Published date | 04 March 2022 |
Docket Number | District Court Suit No 2380 of 2015, District Court Registrar’s Appeal No.63 of 2021, HC/RAS 1/2022 |
Plaintiff Counsel | Ms Lee Yuk Lan (M/s Benedict Chan & Company) |
Defendant Counsel | Mr Willy Tay Boon Chong (Willy Tay's Chambers) |
Subject Matter | Damages,Assessment |
Hearing Date | 17 December 2021,10 January 2022 |
The plaintiff (“P”) was injured in a motor accident on 27 December 2010. On 3 April 2013, he was involved in another motor accident and also suffered injuries. In both cases, the car he was driving was rear-ended while momentarily stationary. He filed claims in respect of both accidents (referred to as “RTA1” and “RTA2” respectively) for the injuries and losses he suffered.
The suit in respect of RTA2 was settled while the suit in respect of RTA1 proceeded to an assessment of damages hearing where the Deputy Registrar awarded the plaintiff the following damages:
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The plaintiff appealed against the DR’s decision.
Application to amend Statement of Claim in respect of pre-trial medical expenses The DR in his Grounds of Decision noted that the plaintiff, in his statement of special damages annexed to the statement of claim, claimed $24,007.30 in pre-writ medical expenses. However, P enlarged this claim to $30,913.44 in his closing submissions. The DR explained in his GD that he would have been prepared to allow a claim for a sum of at least $30,631.24. However, the DR limited the award to $24,007.30 since special damages must be strictly pleaded.1
I allowed the plaintiff’s appeal in relation to pre-trial medical expenses in light of my decision to allow the plaintiff to amend the statement of claim.
Apart from this, the plaintiff’s appeal was dismissed. The plaintiff has appealed against my decision and I will now set out the reasons for my decision.
Plaintiff’s Appeal I will deal with the plaintiff’s appeal in the following order:
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The DR awarded $18,000 for a Grade 3 whiplash injury and associated spinal injuries. In making the award, the DR took the position that half of P’s symptoms post-RTA2 were attributable to RTA2. Therefore, the award was compensation only for the pain and suffering from whiplash that was attributable to RTA1.2
The plaintiff’s position is that RTA2 had little impact on P’s injury in RTA1 whereas the defendant submitted that the damages should be reduced.
I agreed with the DR’s approach and noted that he had carefully scrutinised the medical evidence before coming to his decision. In particular, the DR took note of P’s hospitalisation, the amount of medical leave granted, the dosage and cost of his medication, and P’s claim that he was not able to drive a taxi after RTA2. This can be contrasted to P’s condition immediately before RTA2, where P had recovered sufficiently to be able to drive a taxi.
While the medical experts could not quantitatively apportion the effects of RTA1 and RTA2, there was nevertheless sufficient evidence for the DR to find that RTA2 was a serious accident.
Given the evidence of the substantial impact of RTA2, the DR’s decision to consider half of the plaintiff’s post-RTA2 symptoms as attributable to RTA1 was extremely fair to the plaintiff.
Moving from a consideration of the DR’s approach to the quantum of the award, I am of the view that DR’s award correctly reflects the seriousness of the injury. Despite there being some medical evidence that P suffered from Grade 3 whiplash, the DR did not simply rely on the diagnostic label and went further to take into account the relatively more serious symptoms suffered by P. I also noted that the $18,000 award was within the range in the
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P is appealing against the DR’s award of $6,000 in damages for insomnia and adjustment disorder with depressed mood. P submitted on appeal that the DR erred in finding that while RTA1 contributed to P’s adjustment disorder, D should only be liable to half of P’s post-RTA2 pain and suffering.3
P submitted that this finding was not justified as P’s complaints and symptoms existed before RTA2 and did not worsen after RTA2.4
Decision The basis for submitting that P’s condition had not worsened was that the “Plaintiff’s complaints regarding his psychological condition were largely similar before and after the 2
I agreed with the DR that the evidence showed that P’s condition worsened after RTA2 and D should only be liable to half of P’s post-RTA2 pain and suffering. In arriving at this finding, I noted that:
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As I had allowed P’s application to amend the Statement of Special Damages, I am awarding P $30,631.24 for medical expenses for the period 27 Dec 2010 to 27 Sep 2012.
For the reasons stated earlier concerning the seriousness of RTA2 and its impact on the plaintiff, I agreed with the DR’s approach to award P half of the post-RTA2 medical expenses used to treat P’s injuries that are not clearly attributable to RTA2.5
Future Medical Expenses
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I dismissed P’s appeal against the DR’s award of $2,484.13 for future medical expenses.
P’s submissionThe plaintiff’s claim of $56,304 for future medical expenses was based on $276.00/month x 12 months/year x 17 (being the multiplier considering P’s 36-year remaining life expectancy). At the hearing of the appeal, the plaintiff put forward an alternative sum of $8,721 ($513 x multiplier of 17 years).6
Court’s finding on future medical expenses I agreed with the DR’s approach in looking at:
Given that the medication was only dispensed once a year in 2018 and 2019 (and twice in 2017), I agreed with the DR’s decision:
On the basis that half of P’s pain and suffering for his whiplash is attributable to RTA2, I agreed with the DR that it would be wrong for D1 to bear the entire cost of P’s future medical expenses and agreed with the 50% deduction applied by the DR.
Pre-trial and future Transport Expenses
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I dismissed P’s appeal against the DR’s award of $490 for pre-trial and $42.50 for future transport expenses.
Plaintiff’s submission P does not dispute the fact that there was no documentary proof regarding P’s transport expense. However, P cites the case of
D disputes this head of claim as it is an item of special damages which was not proven by taxi receipts.
FindingsAs a starting point, I agreed with the DR that P should be awarded pre-trial transport expenses for 107 trips to the hospital comprising 89 trips before RTA2 and 18 trips after RTA2.
Given the lack of evidence as to the transport expenses incurred, I agreed with the DR’s approach to peg the amount per trip at $5. P was entitled to these expenses and even if there were no receipts, the cost of transport would not have been zero. I also noted that some of these trips took place when...
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