Girl to get R1.8m after taxi knock

Pretoria - When she was five years old, Betty was walking on a pavement in eMalehleni (Witbank) with her mother when a taxi knocked her down and reversed over her, causing permanent brain damage.

She received a settlement of only R32 000 from the Road Accident Fund but now, aged 12, she is to receive nearly R1.8 million thanks to a determined lawyer’s intervention.

Betty’s brain function is so impaired that she had to repeat Grade R twice, before she was sent to Grade 1, which she also failed.

She has been placed in a school for children with special needs and when she reaches 18, will be moved to a facility which will have to care for her for the rest of her life.

A few years ago, her mother, with the help of an attorney, instituted a damages claim against the RAF on her behalf. That law firm received a settlement offer from the RAF for R40 000, which it accepted. Because, in terms of that settlement, the child was held 20 percent liable for the accident, she only received R32 000.

But the family’s new lawyer, Stephan Spruyt, said the settlement was unethical because, by law, a child under the age of 12 could could not be negligent.

“Such a child would only need to prove 1 percent negligence on the part of the driver to succeed 100 percent with her claim. This is a grossly under-settled claim,” Spruyt said.

Another problem was that many people, such as Betty’s mother, were ignorant as to what they should receive. “To them R32 000 sounds a lot, but they did not realise the long term implications,” he said.

Spruyt said in terms of existing case law, should a minor be able to demonstrate that there is a gross disparity between the settled value and the actual value of the claim, the court can set the settlement aside so he decided to sue the RAF again.

Lawyers acting for the RAF could not obtain the authority to renegotiate the matter when it served before court last week, and the matter stood down for a while. But Stephan Maritz, an advocate, eventually managed to secure R1.783 million towards the child’s damages.

This was confirmed by the High Court in Pretoria’s Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba by means of an order.

Spruyt said there was an obligation on the RAF to settle matters on a fair and equitable basis but claimed this case had been “rushed through the system”. In Betty’s case nothing had been done prior to now to investigate the child’s injuries, he said. Although Betty suffered severe brain damage, no reports from experts were obtained to ascertain the extent of the damage.

Spruyt said he was concerned what would happen if the envisaged new Road Accident Benefit Scheme came into effect, where people would have to claim directly from the RAF.

Betty can now be assured she will be taken care of.

Pretoria News