Repas Waima v MVIT

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Court: National Court
• Citation: [1992] PNGLR 254
• Year: 1992
• Date: 01 July 1992

National Court: Woods J

Judgment Delivered: 1 July 1992

1 Negligence—death resulting from negligent driving of motor vehicle—liability—vehicle not insured but identified—contributory negligence for riding in an uninsured vehicle

2 Damages—dependency claim by widow for herself and others—whether parents, parents–in–law, sister, and brother qualify as dependents—assessment of damages

3 Practice and procedure—pleadings under O8 r33 is a code of pleading—failure to plead relevant matters—need to plead deceased's employment and salary details before they can be brought into evidence—pleading in dependency claims generally

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Woods J: This is a claim by the Plaintiff for damages following the death of her husband Simon Waima who was killed in a motor vehicle accident near Tambul in the Western Highlands on the 4th November, 1989. The Plaintiff is claiming damages on behalf of herself and their son and the parents and sister and brother of the deceased and her parents.

It is alleged that the death was caused by the negligent driving of one Punere Kini Winip of a Toyota Hilux utility registered number ALA 989 whereby the vehicle ran off the road and overturned. It is alleged that the driver was driving too fast for the condition of the road.

Registration and Insurance of the vehicle.

It became apparent from the evidence that there was some confusion about the status of the registration of the vehicle. The investigating officer noted from his enquiries that the vehicle had been registered in the North Solomons Province and the expiry date of the registration was 17.10.89 and the owner was a person from Tambul. However the Trust brought evidence that the registration had expired in October 87 and the registered owner was a company in North Solomons. The evidence brought by the Defendant about the ownership and Insurance of the vehicle contradicted the evidence of the police officer. Whatever the situation was the registration and therefore insurance may have lapsed at the time of the accident. However, I do not see that this affects the status of the claim against the Trust as the wording of the claim is wide enough to bring it within s54 of the Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) Act. S54 provides for claims to be brought against the Trust both as regards insured vehicles and uninsured vehicles. If the vehicle was uninsured at the time of the accident it is nevertheless identified and the driver is identified.

Liability and Negligence.

The Plaintiff brought witnesses who say they were with the deceased on the 4th November in the subject utility when it was going down a hill out of Tambul too fast and ran off the road and overturned. They say they were on the back with Simon and they received injuries and Simon was killed. The investigating officer did not attend the scene until the next day. In spite of the challenge to his enquiries about the registration and...