ENG KAH LEONG v CHEE LAY HWA

Case Significance

A personal-injury quantum appeal dismissed on appellate-restraint principles, upholding the Sessions Court's awards for future loss of earnings and private-hospital treatment costs.

This High Court decision at Pulau Pinang concerns an appeal from the Sessions Court in a road traffic accident claim founded on negligence. The accident occurred on 8 January 2019 at Jalan Betek, Bukit Mertajam, and involved two motorcycles ridden by the plaintiff and the defendant respectively. The matter had proceeded to a full trial in the Sessions Court, at which the plaintiff called eight witnesses and the defendant one, and the appeal was confined to the question of quantum — the damages assessed for the plaintiff's injuries.

The Court began with the settled principle that governs appellate intervention in findings of fact and assessments of damages: an appellate court will not disturb the decision of the trial court unless there has been a misapprehension of law or of the evidence by the court below (tiada campurtangan daripada Mahkamah Atasan kecuali terdapat salah tanggapan undang-undang — no interference by the higher court unless there has been a misdirection in law). That restraint reflects the advantage the trial judge enjoys in seeing and hearing the witnesses.

Two heads of the award were challenged on appeal: the award for loss of future earnings and the award for treatment costs incurred at a private hospital. Examining the evidence relied on below against the appellate-restraint standard, the Court found no misapprehension warranting its intervention on either head. It accordingly dismissed the appeal on quantum — rayuan terhadap kuantum ... adalah ditolak (the appeal against quantum is dismissed) — and affirmed and maintained the decision of the learned Sessions Court Judge. It also confirms that the reasonableness of a plaintiff's decision to seek treatment at a private hospital, and the projection of future earnings, are quintessentially matters for the trial court's assessment on the evidence rather than for reweighing on appeal. The judgment is a useful illustration of the limited circumstances in which the High Court, sitting in its appellate capacity, will revisit a Sessions Court's assessment of personal-injury damages, and of the treatment of future-earnings and private-hospital treatment claims within that framework.