SINGAPORE: A district court awarded more than S$417,000 (US$323,000) in damages to the son of a man who died five years after being knocked down in a traffic accident.
In issuing the judgment, Deputy Registrar Kim Bum Soo chided the “wholly unreasonable behaviour” of NTUC Income, the insurer of the defendants, for its “unfounded objections” to some claims and “casually impersonal stonewalling”.
According to the judgment made available on Wednesday (Oct 1), Mr Ko Wah was knocked down in a motor accident by the defendant, Mr Samikannu Manickavasakar, on Jun 21, 2019.
Mr Ko, who was then aged 78, suffered severe brain injuries requiring multiple surgeries and became bedridden and permanently mentally incapacitated.
He was fully dependent on his caregivers for all his activities of daily living and his presentation was consistent with advanced dementia.
The plaintiff, Jonathan Ko Wei Ze, was heavily involved in taking care of his late father, along with his sister and a domestic helper.
Mr Ko died in October 2024 before closing submissions were tendered at the hearing to assess damages.
Mr Jonathan Ko was represented by Mr Tan Jee Ming and Mr Derek Tan from Quahe Woo & Palmer.
The defendants – Mr Samikannu and a related company – were represented by Mr Richard Tan, Mr Calvin Tan and Ms Annabelle Au Jia En from Tan Chin Hoe & Co.
However, Deputy Registrar Kim noted that NTUC Income took over conduct of the defence as it would have to foot the bill for any judgment against the defendants, since it was the defendants’ insurance provider.
“The defendants’ lawyers – good, reputable counsel of fine standing in the bar – were therefore taking instructions from NTUC Income throughout the proceedings,” noted Mr Kim.
“The unsaid understanding was that this was essentially an insurance claim packaged in legal proceedings and adjudicated by a judicial officer.”
He said that NTUC Income’s “unfounded objections” when played out during proceedings read like “the sort of casually impersonal stonewalling that some would associate with the worst administrative processes”, while “the earnestness of the beleaguered plaintiff offered heartbreaking contrast”.
NTUC Income is now known as Income Insurance, following a corporatisation process that was completed in September 2022.
THE HEADS OF CLAIM
Mr Jonathan Ko sued on behalf of his father’s estate for damages for pain and suffering, loss of amenities arising from injuries in the accident, loss of pre-trial earnings, medical expenses and further expenses.
Mr Kim said the medical evidence produced by Mr Jonathan Ko was probably incomplete and lacked a medical report that was referenced in Mr Samikannu’s criminal proceedings over the accident.
He said the defendants, “for whatever reason”, did not see it fit to put a medical report before the court even though it would have been highly material.
Mr Kim said NTUC Income’s instructions to the defendants’ counsel were to completely deny the claim for pain and suffering and loss of amenities.
“Their position was that the late Mr Ko had been comatose the entire time, and could not have appreciated any pain and suffering at all,” said Mr Kim.
This was despite clear evidence that there were periods of time when Mr Ko was alert and appeared to understand simple instructions, and despite the “uncontroversial legal position” that an injured person is still entitled to damages for loss of amenities where they are unable to feel pain and suffering.
Despite being given “an explicit opportunity” to explain their insistence “on such an unyielding and apparently unreasonable position”, NTUC Income “simply declined to explain themselves”, said Mr Kim.
He eventually gave an award of S$218,000 for Mr Ko’s pain and suffering and loss of amenities.
He said: “The truth is, monetary compensation for physical injury almost never feels adequate nor accurate. The layman would understandably find it inadequate or disrespectful to hear that human body parts can be priced – a bad skull fracture for S$80,000, or severe brain damage for S$220,000, etc.”
He said that a bed-bound man unable to enjoy the company of his filial children in his final years, or a graceful departure, “arguably experiences a loss that hard-hearted money cannot capture”. However, he said the award was his “best approximation of a fair, and rational process that answers all parties’ concerns”.
As for pre-trial earnings, Mr Kim found that Mr Ko would have worked for one-and-a-half more years from the time of the accident.
This was as Mr Ko was 78 at the time of the accident, and the average lifespan of a Singaporean man is 81.
However, Mr Kim applied a 50 per cent discount as Mr Ko was “not an average Singaporean male” in that he had a history of heart failure and other chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes.
He would also have only continued working for his employer, a firm providing security services, for as long as he was contracted and there was no guarantee of his company’s contract being renewed at the job site.
Mr Ko might also have retired at some point, said Mr Kim, using his average monthly salary of S$1,600 in 2019 and S$1,702.08 in 2020 as bases for calculation.
MEDICAL EXPENSES
Mr Kim noted that NTUC Income “staunchly refused to pay for any ambulance related expenses”, “somewhat inexplicably”.
“I cannot understand why NTUC Income would be willing to pay for hospital expenses, but not transportation to the hospital. There is nothing unreasonable about calling an ambulance to transport a bedridden man for his hospital visits. It boggled the mind why NTUC Income would have taken such an unyielding stance over something so obviously necessary,” said Mr Kim.
He said Mr Ko’s ambulance rides were “not joyrides” and that the papers paint a picture of Mr Ko’s continuing struggle with his injuries after the accident.
He allowed all the claims relating to the ambulance rides, saying they were taken for “perfectly legitimate” reasons and supported by receipts.
However, Mr Kim denied some claims relating to Mr Ko’s pre-existing medical conditions, saying the defendants were “not responsible for the late Mr Ko contracting diabetes”.
He granted a sum of about S$122,900 for medical claims but rejected a sum of about S$65,950.
As Mr Jonathan Ko had no receipts or documentation proving his father’s medical expenses from November 2023 to October 2024, these medical expenses would not ordinarily be claimable.
However, Mr Kim said this case had “somewhat extraordinary facts” and he was “confident” that he could relax the traditional rule on special damages requiring specific proof.
Mr Jonathan Ko did not collect further documentary evidence of medical expenses from November 2023 as his father had not died at the time and any undocumented medical expenses would have been addressed by Mr Jonathan Ko’s claim in future medical expenses, as the case was fixed for assessment by the court in May 2024.
“With the late Mr Ko’s departure, the claim in future medical expenses fell away but left behind an evidentiary deficit for the medical expenses incurred between November 2023 and Oct 2, 2024. That deficit is not the plaintiff’s fault,” said Mr Kim.
He said he was “confident”, if anything, that Mr Jonathan Ko would have diligently collected and compiled further medical receipts if he knew he had to.
“The bundle of documents tendered is impressive. It tells the tale of a family methodically collating receipts over a four-year period, from multiple merchants, through multiple hospital visits, and concerning multiple caregiving needs,” said Mr Kim.
“From diapers to DuoDERM (a wound care product), and milk powder to medication, the list is extensive. I have no difficulty believing that the failure to produce further medical receipts was largely (if not entirely) due to the unforeseen early demise of the late Mr Ko.”
Mr Kim said one of the defendants’ most strident objections was that Mr Ko’s milk powder was too expensive, and that a more cost-effective nutritional milk alternative should have been used.
This was part of the defendants’ larger argument that Mr Ko could have done with less, said Mr Kim.
A less costly mode of transport, cheaper alternatives to buying a new pulse oximeter and thermometer and a more cost-effective nutritional milk alternative.
“But this forgets one fundamental fact: before the accident, Mr Ko was not bedridden,” said Mr Kim.
“He was ‘otherwise independent of all activities of daily living’. He needed an ambulance because he was otherwise bedridden. He needed regular medical monitoring because he was bedridden. And he had to take milk powder because he could no longer consume solid food,” said Mr Kim.
The defendants “flirted with” the argument that Mr Ko would have had to pay for food anyway, whether there had been an accident or not, the judgment read.
The total cost of milk powder purchased from June 2019 to October 2023 was about S$16,500.
Mr Kim gave a 60 per cent discount on this figure, to roughly approximate the minimum Mr Ko may have spent on food had he not met with the accident. The resulting amount was about S$6,600.
In his concluding remarks, Mr Kim clarified that he did not begrudge the defendants’ lawyers “at all” for conveying their clients’ instructions.
“If anything, their advocacy was candid, well-organised, and fully in line with their duties to the court,” said Mr Kim, who also expressed his appreciation for Mr Jonathan Ko’s tedious organisation of the voluminous documents produced and “ably presented” by his counsel.
He said that while NTUC Income eventually agreed to pay the medical expenses paid using MediShield Life and ambulance fees, this came “too late”.
“By the time these concessions came in, a full assessment had been conducted, two rounds of written submissions had been tendered, and an oral hearing had been convened as well. The value of a reasonable concession primarily lies in its ability to avert a costly legal proceeding. That cost had already been incurred in money and more,” he said.
