BY ORDER OF THE TRIBUNAL
* The inquest panchanama, post mortem report and death certificate of the victim were placed before the tribunal
* Though not present in the car during accident, owner liable to pay compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act
* ICICI Lombard Insurance Company being the insurer duty bound to cover the insured in case of any third party claim
* Loss of income, funeral expenses, loss of estate, other factors taken into account for arriving at a final figure
* Victim's widow entitled to half of the compensation amount while sons will get the remainder with equal share
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In a major relief for the kins of an accident victim, Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Panaji presiding officer BP Deshpande has ordered payment of Rs 25,50,000 as compensation to the family of the victim with interest of 9 pc from the date of filing the petition.
All three respondents, including the driver and the owner of the vehicle and ICICI Lombard Motor Insurance Company have been ordered to jointly pay the amount.
The wife and three sons aged 16, 15 and 14 years of the deceased Shivappa Chavan Lamani from Socorro, Bardez in their claim had sought Rs 20 lakh by way of compensation.
They had stated that they were fully dependent on the deceased Shivappa. Shivappa had a business of selling fish and earned monthly income of around Rs 12,000 to Rs 13,000.
Shivappa (36) met with an accident on February 2, 2014 at the Old Mandovi Bridge, Panaji at around 5.15 pm. He was riding a two-wheeler from Malim fish jetty towards Panaji to sell fish. At that time, Vikas Narang, according to the police, drove a Maruti WagonR at high speed in rash and negligent manner, ramming into Shivappa’s scooter resulting in his death.
The WagonR was on the wrong side of the road and the spot of impact between the two vehicles corroborated this, read thepanchanama conducted by the police. Besides, the eye witness also stated before the tribunal that the car came at a high speed from the wrong lane and hit Shivappa’s scooter.
The inquest panchanama, post mortem report and death certificate of Shivappa were placed before the tribunal to prove that the cause of his death was due to fatal injury to the lungs and fractures of ribs together with compound fracture of the right leg, all resulting from blunt force impact sustained during the accident.
Owner of the WagonR Sachin Kamble was not present in the car at the time of the accident. However, being the owner of the vehicle, the tribunal ruled that Kamble is liable to pay compensation under the Motor Vehicles Act.
ICICI Lombard Insurance Company had insured the WagonR and hence it was observed that being the insurer, the company was duty bound to cover the insured in case of any third party claim.
While allowing the claim, the tribunal relied on apex court case laws in order to calculate the final compensation amount. Accordingly, loss of income, funeral expenses, loss of estate, loss of consortium and also loss of love and affection were taken into account thereby arriving at a final figure of Rs 25.50 lakh.
Tribunal has further ordered that Shivappa’s widow is entitled to half of the compensation amount while his sons are entitled to the remainder with each having a right to an equal share.
