Christopher Kiggundu & Anor v Uganda Transport co, Ltd [1993] UGSC 24

Supreme Court · 1993 Appeal Partly Allowed ✦ AI-generated summary ↓ Download

Jurisdiction

Uganda

Case Type

Civil appeal to the Supreme Court from the High Court's assessment of damages, liability having been admitted at first instance

Decision

Appeal allowed in part; general damages increased to Shs 10 million (first appellant) and Shs 2 million (second appellant), and special damages for lost cash awarded to the first appellant, with interest and costs

The full judgment

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Holding

On appeal from an assessment of damages (liability admitted) for injuries suffered when the respondent's bus overturned, the Supreme Court held the general damages inordinately low and substituted higher awards: Shs 10 million for the first appellant (above-knee amputation, 60% disability) and Shs 2 million for the second appellant, whose serious fracture was wrongly discounted by preferring his lay testimony over the medical report. The claims for the watch, shoes and loss of earnings failed for want of strict proof, but the cash stripped from the first appellant while unconscious was a foreseeable consequence of the accident, recoverable as special damages once established.

Facts

On 27 March 1989 the appellants were fare-paying passengers in the respondent's bus travelling from Kampala to Lira when it overturned near Nakasongola. The first appellant, Kiggundu, then aged 42, sustained a crush injury to the left leg which was amputated above the knee, leaving 60% permanent disability. The second appellant, Ssentongo, sustained a fractured right femur and a sprained right shoulder, with wasting of the thigh muscles and shortening of the leg producing a permanent limp and 45% permanent incapacity. The first appellant also claimed to have lost cash of Shs 200,000 he was carrying to buy groundnuts, together with a watch and shoes, which disappeared while he was unconscious after the accident. Liability was admitted by the respondent, and the suit in the High Court proceeded for assessment of damages only.

Issues

Whether the trial judge's awards of general damages for personal injury were inordinately low and an erroneous estimate.
Whether the trial judge erred in law in failing to award the first appellant special damages for lost cash, a watch and shoes.
Whether a claim for loss of earnings was sufficiently pleaded and proved to be recoverable.
Whether the trial judge erred in rejecting the medical evidence that the second appellant had suffered a fractured femur because his own testimony did not describe the fracture.

Orders

Grounds 1 and 3 of the appeal allowed.
Ground 2 succeeds only in part.
Award of Shs 5.5 million general damages to the first appellant set aside and Shs 10 million substituted.
Award of Shs 600,000 general damages to the second appellant set aside and Shs 2 million substituted.
First appellant awarded special damages in respect of the lost cash of Shs 200,000.
The general damages to carry interest at court rate from the date of judgment.
The special damages awarded to the first plaintiff to carry interest at commercial rate from the date of filing suit.
Respondent to pay the appellants the costs of the appeal.

Key headnotes

Damages — General Damages for Personal Injury — Appellate Interference with an Inordinately Low Award

An appellate court will set aside an award of general damages for personal injury and substitute its own assessment where the award is an erroneous estimate that is inordinately low having regard to the nature and severity of the injury.

Damages — Special Damages — Requirement of Strict Proof

Special damages must be specifically pleaded and strictly proved; a vague or unsubstantiated claim, such as one unsupported by receipts or evidence of value, will be rejected.

Tort — Negligence — Remoteness and Foreseeability — Property Stolen from an Unconscious Accident Victim

The loss of cash or property stripped from a motor-accident victim while unconscious is a foreseeable consequence of the accident for which the negligent driver or his master is liable to pay special damages, once the loss is established.

Damages — Loss of Earnings — Pleading and Proof

A claim for loss of earnings is in the nature of special damages and must be specifically claimed and strictly proved by cogent evidence; an unparticularised assertion of monthly earnings is insufficient and cannot be added to general damages.

Evidence — Medical Evidence — Weight as Against Lay Testimony of the Injured Party

Where a qualified medical report establishes the nature of an injury, a court should not reject that evidence merely because the injured lay witness failed to describe the injury in medical terms, the doctor being in the better position to classify the injury.

Damages — Calculation — Working Life Expectancy

For the purpose of calculating damages there must be a limit to working age, and the courts have taken normal working life expectancy to be in the region of 50 to 55 years.

Legislation cited (1)

Rules of the Supreme Court r.97

Cases cited (1)

Bhogal v Burbidge & Another (1975) EA 286

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