Joy Kawai an Infant By Her Next Friend Kawai Takame v Motor Vehicles Insurance (PNG) Trust (1998) SC588

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Court: Supreme Court
• Judge: Salika J, Hinchliffe J, Akuram J
• Citation: (1998) SC588
• Judgment Number: SC588
• Year: 1998

Supreme Court: Salika J, Hinchliffe J, Akuram J

Judgment Delivered: ? October 1998

SC588

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

[IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE]

SCA 37 OF 1998

JOY KAWAI an infant by her next friend KAWAI TAKAME

Appellant

V

MOTOR VEHICLE INSURANCE (PNG) TRUST

Respondent

MT HAGEN : SALIKA, HINCHLIFFE & AKURAM, JJ

April 1997, October 1998

Practice and Procedure — Notice of Intentionto Claim from the Trust — a Letter purporting to give notice outside the 6 months period is not a valid notice — Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act Chapter 295, s.54(6).

CASES CITED:

Stanley Tendi v Motor Vehicle Insurance Trust N.1423

Rundle v Motor Vehicle Insurance Trust [1988] PNGLR 20

BY THE COURT: On 17 December 1991 the appellant sustained personal injuries in a motor vehicle accident involving a motor vehicle registration number AGM 267 along the Okuk Highway between Wapenamanda and Wabag. By letter dated 25 February 1993 the Appellants lawyer Mr. O'Connor wrote a letter to the Respondent Trust purporting it to be a notice under s.54(6) of the Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act Chapter 295. The Trust never received that letter and never replied to the letter. In any case the Trust was under no obligation to reply because the letter was well outside the 6 months given under the Act to give notice.

In the meantime Mr. O'Connor had also written a letter to the Insurance Commissioner dated 13 April 1993...