A 22-year-old man who suffered a botched circumcision 13 years ago has been awarded RM123,556 in damages by the Court of Appeal. This amount is significantly lower than the RM3.1mil he had initially won in his lawsuit against the Malaysian Government and four other individuals.
The three-judge panel, chaired by Judge Datuk Ravintharan Paramaguru, found that the previous damages awarded by the High Court were excessive. The court stated that the general damages of RM2mil were unsupported by any documentation and reduced them to RM100,000. The special damages were reduced from RM108,356 to RM23,556.
The Court of Appeal also set aside the severe and exemplary damages of RM1mil awarded by the High Court. These damages were not specified in the initial pleadings and lacked any basis. However, the costs of RM100,000 awarded by the High Court were upheld.
Aside from the government, the other defendants in the case are the medical officer and director of Kuala Lipis Hospital, as well as the specialist and director of Selayang Hospital.
Judge Ravintharan stated that the court would not interfere with the findings made by the trial judge, who held the appellants responsible for the delay in treatment, leading to the surgery taking place at 8.30pm on Dec 13, 2010.
The appellants, represented by Senior Federal Counsel Nurhafizza Azizan and Federal Counsel Saravanan Kuppusamy, appealed against the decision of Judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir on April 7, 2022. Judge Tahir had awarded damages of RM3.1mil to the young man in his written judgment on May 27, 2022.
In his suit, the man claimed that the circumcision process on Dec 13, 2010, was not conducted according to the prescribed procedure, resulting in the complete severance of the head of his penis. The delay in medical staff attending to his injuries extinguished any hope of saving his private part, according to Judge Tahir.
The victim’s mother, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of her 10-year-old son at the time, claimed that he has since become withdrawn and struggles to interact with others due to the permanent disability.
The respondent was represented by lawyer Mohamad Zainuddin Abu Bakar during the proceedings.
– Bernama
Credit: The Star : News Feed
