$872k awarded to accident victim who sued friend for negligence

A 28-year-old man, who suffered brain injury after the motorcycle on which he was the pillion rider collided with a taxi, was yesterday awarded damages of nearly $872,000 in the negligence suit he filed against his friend.

But the High Court rejected Mr Danial Syafiq Mahbob's claim for $420,000 to hire a domestic worker to care for him because he has epileptic fits after the 2013 accident.

His mother told the court that someone should be on hand to ensure he is able to breathe if he has a seizure. He also needs someone to communicate with him, cook for him and remind him to take his medication, she added.

But Senior Judge Andrew Ang, in a written judgment, said Mr Danial Syafiq was able to carry out the activities of daily living, to take public transport to go skateboarding and even take videos while doing so.

Justice Ang noted that the frequency of the fits had tapered off to just one episode last year. He also accepted medical evidence that the plaintiff was unlikely to stop breathing if he had another seizure.

"It has not been proved... that the plaintiff would need a domestic helper on account of his condition brought about by the accident," said the judge.

On April 17, 2013, days after he enrolled in a diploma course, Mr Danial Syafiq suffered traumatic brain injury in a crash between the motorbike ridden by his friend Amin Juman Abdul Jabbar and a taxi driven by Mr Mohammed Faizal Ismail.

In 2016, he sued both men but did not pursue the case against the cabby. Mr Amin Juman agreed to bear full liability but pulled the cabby back into the case as a third party to contribute to the damages.

A report by Mr Danial Syafiq's neurosurgeon said the accident left him with lifelong cognitive and memory problems. He also suffered 46 seizures from November 2013 to June last year. Most of them occurred between 2013 and 2015, with six episodes in 2016, four in 2017 and one last year.

Justice Ang awarded a total of $671,873.50 in general damages, including for pain and suffering, loss of future earnings and future medical expenses. He also awarded $200,101.45 in special damages.

Mr Danial Syafiq had claimed loss of future earnings of between $730,080 and $1.26 million.

His mother said that, but for the accident, her son would have obtained an engineering degree from Australia and followed in the footsteps of his father, who owns an engineering services company.

But Justice Ang said the man's academic record did not support this contention - he enrolled with the BCA Academy for a diploma course in electrical engineering and clean energy as he would not have qualified for admission to a polytechnic in Singapore. Mr Danial Syafiq eventually withdrew from the course. The award of $456,204 for loss of future earnings was on the basis that he would have obtained his diploma, if not for the accident.

The special damages included $113,728.59 for loss of earnings of his mother, who took leave from work to care for him.