Man awarded S$356,000 in damages after losing kidney in car accident in 2015
The accident, which caused him to graduate from polytechnic a year later than his peers, also left him with liver lacerations and injuries to his diaphragm and lung.
File photo of the State Courts in Singapore. (Photo: Calvin Oh)
SINGAPORE: A motorcyclist who lost a kidney and suffered other severe injuries in a car accident in 2015 has been awarded about S$356,000 (US$267,000) in damages by a court.
The driver, Ms Norhazlina Md Yusop, accepted that she caused the accident and the resulting injuries, including multiple fractures and massive scars.
In a judgment released on Thursday (Apr 27), Deputy Registrar Kim Bum Soo said the plaintiff, who was a polytechnic student at the time, was a young man with a life ahead of him and dreams to boot.
However, after the "horrific accident", his life is now "a series of compromises he makes with a new, dimmer reality".
After the accident between Mr Asher David De Laure's motorcycle and Ms Norhazlina's car on Sep 28, 2015, Mr De Laure required extensive surgical intervention for his injuries, which include a shattered right kidney, liver lacerations, partial paralysis of his right vocal cord, and injuries to his diaphragm and lung.
There was massive blood loss, requiring invasive surgical operations and he had a complicated recovery, developing rapid muscle breakdown post-operatively and suffering from acute renal failure.
Mr De Laure suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and managed to complete his polytechnic education after some considerable difficulty and graduating a year later than his peers.
He found his first job out of school, which paid S$3,500 per month, too physically taxing due to his injuries and found another job instead.
He is now 26 and earns S$2,400 at his current job, where he continues to experience difficulty handling some of the more physical aspects of his work due to his injuries.
Mr De Laure was represented by Mr Caleb Tan, David Siow Yi Dong and Joshua Lim, while the driver was represented by Mr Narayanan Ramasamy and Donald Alastair Spencer.
Both sides agreed on all the heads of claim, except those related to pain and suffering and loss of earning capacity.
For his claim for loss of earning capacity, Mr De Laure described his difficulties in applying for jobs, saying that "most places don't want the liability" and his uncertainty about being able to carry out his assigned job scope in the future.
He also suggested that the loss lay in the fact that he graduated a year later than his peers. He also had potential career paths - as a soldier or pilot - that are now closed because of his physical disabilities.
Mr Kim said this claim was more akin to a claim for a loss of chance at becoming a pilot or soldier, but said this sort of claim is an "identifiably different head of loss".
Mr Kim said he had difficulty accepting that Mr De Laure could even have qualified to be a soldier or pilot in the first place - as no credible evidence was produced.
Joining the National Cadet Corps as a co-curricular activity in secondary school says little about his eligibility to join the armed forces, said Mr Kim, adding that Mr De Laure's expressed desires were to join elite vocations within the military, such as the Guards or Commandos, and serve in leadership capacities.
However, Mr Kim said that Mr De Laure will almost certainly never be able to take up jobs requiring great physical labour.
"He will not be able to participate in industries or occupations that call on the strength of his legs and the stamina of his body. And one of those occupations may well be a job as a soldier or as a pilot," said Mr Kim.
"His loss, if framed not as a loss of opportunity (to secure a better paying job), but as a reduction in the range of jobs available to him, sounds exactly like the sort of competitive disadvantage described (elsewhere)," he said.
"Consider also, the true effect of a delayed graduation. It goes beyond just lost income. It represents lost workplace experience too. The plaintiff, by virtue of starting work one year later, has one less year of workplace experience than he otherwise would have had."
He awarded around S$356,000 in damages to Mr De Laure. This includes S$87,000 for the pain and suffering from his kidney injuries, S$70,000 for his loss of future earning capacity and about S$34,800 for his loss income related to his delay in graduation and taking a leave of absence from school due to the accident.
Mr Kim said this was a horrific accident and involved a "searching examination of the fairest remedy for an unfortunate victim".
