Chennai: Nearly after seven years of legal battle, a family, which lost its sole bread winner in a road accident in the city, got reprieve with the Madras high court enhancing the compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal from Rs 12.47 lakh to Rs 15.53 lakh.
Allowing the appeal filed by Mahalakshmi, Subbulakshmi and Subbiah, the wife, mother and father of the deceased Kumaresan, aged 34, respectively, a division bench comprising justices K.K. Sasidharan and R. Subramanian directed the metropolitan transport corporation to pay the award amount within eight weeks.
According to the appellants, the accident occurred when Kumaresan was walking on the pavement inside the bus stand near the Central railway station, a MTC bus driven by its driver in a rash and negligent manner dashed against him, resulting to his death. Terming the negligence of the bus driver as cause for the accident, they sought compensation from MTC.
Resisting the claim, the MTC contended that when the bus was traveling on a slow speed towards Central Railway Station, a mob of pedestrians crossed the road suddenly forcing the driver of the bus to swerve the bus to the left. As a result of the sudden swerving to the left, the bus ran over the pavement and dashed against the deceased resulting in the accident. It also contended that the deceased was a ticketless passenger in another bus and he had jumped over the platform to avoid the checking squad.
Concluding that the accident occurred due to the rash and negligent driving of the driver of the bus, the Tribunal awarded a compensation of Rs 12.47 lakh. Aggrieved, his family filed the present appeal, seeking to enhance the compensation amount.
The bench said the fact that the deceased was running a provision store in the city was not denied. Even adopting a minimum of Rs 300 per day, the deceased should have earned Rs 9,000 per month. “Considering the fact that the deceased was aged only 34 years at the time of the accident, we conclude that the monthly income could be notionally taken at Rs 8,000 in as much as the income from the provision store may not be stable. If a sum of Rs 8,000 is taken to be the monthly income adding 40 per cent towards future prospects, the monthly income for the purpose of determining the loss of dependency would be Rs 11,200. Admittedly, the deceased was survived by his wife and parents and therefore, 1/3 is deducted towards his personal expenses,” the bench added and applied the multiplier method to arrive at a compensation of Rs 15.53 lakh.
