Firm whose van injured cabbie 'not liable'

Firm whose van injured cabbie 'not liable'
05:55 AM Jan 29, 2011
by Ong Dai Lin
SINGAPORE - If an employee drives a company vehicle outside of office hours for personal use and gets into a car accident, should the employer also be held liable for the offence?

The answer on Friday by High Court judge Kan Ting Chiu was a "no" - reversing a decision made by the lower courts in September last year.
On October 24, 2006, Mr Chua Meng Hwee, a delivery driver for Advance Industry Technology, was driving a company van along Yuan Ching Road at around 3.19am when he crashed into a taxi.
Mr Chua died from his injuries in hospital. An autopsy report showed that his blood alcohol level - 306mg per 100ml of blood - was more than three times the legal limit of 80mg.
The taxi driver, Mr Chiang Choong Loong, was hospitalised for more than three weeks for head injuries and a shoulder fracture.
Mr Chiang, who is now unemployed, sued the estate of Mr Chua and Advance Industry. Mr Chiang's lawyer Ching Kim Chuah had argued that the company had allowed Mr Chua free use of the van - "a potentially lethal machine", in the lawyer's words - and was under a duty to ask whether its employee would handle the vehicle responsibly.
Last year, District Judge Loo Ngan Chor ruled that the estate of Mr Chua and Advance Industry Technology should jointly pay 100 per cent of the damages suffered by Mr Chiang.
On Friday, the company appealed against the decision. Its lawyer Bhaskaran Sivasamy argued that, while the employment has created an opportunity for the commission of an offence, it does not mean liability on the employer. The lawyer said: "Otherwise employers' liability for employees' tort will be limitless."
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29Jan2011: Firm whose van injured cabbie 'not liable'