In the June 2021 judgement of Chantell Martin v Road Accident Fund, the court decided that gratuitous or benevolent payments, received by an injured claimant from her husband, should not be taken into account in the calculation of that person’s damages for loss of earnings.
The accident occurred in 2015, and the RAF had
This November 2021 Constitutional Court judgment contains a useful review and analysis of when it is appropriate to award constitutional damages.
In terms of section 38 of the Constitution, a court may award damages for a violation of rights in the Bill of Rights.
Section 38 refers to the granting of “appropriate relief”.
In a landmark judgment, the Constitutional Court has left the door open for the development of the common law to have future damages in personal injury claims paid periodically and by way of services.
The Constitutional Court was faced with the question whether massive future medical expenses based on speculation can be paid by
A person who claims for damages sustained as a result of injuries negligently caused by someone else has a single, indivisible cause of action and must sue for all damages in one claim.
This proposition was reasserted in the context of a prescription allegation regarding a Road Accident Fund Act claim.
The RAF Act only
The claim for damages for abuse of rights must establish that the defendant exercised a right solely or predominately with the motive of harming another person and without advancing a significant interest of their own. If the person allegedly causing the harm was seeking to advance a reasonable interest of their own, a bad motive
Whether a municipality is required to act so as to avoid reasonably foreseeable harm and, if so, what steps it is required to take to prevent harm, depends what can be reasonably expected in the circumstances of each case. Undue demands cannot be placed on public authorities and functionaries. Their resources and the manner in
The law allows an innocent party to cancel a contract where the counter-party has wrongfully repudiated a contract, and then to claim damages.
In calculating the damages, however, events following repudiation must be taken into account where the events would have reduced the value of performance, even without a breach, had the contract continued in
The driver of a security vehicle was awarded damages against his employer for injuries he sustained in a hijacking because he did not have the promised bullet proof glass windscreen.
When being interviewed for the job, the plaintiff had been informed that he would be driving a fully armoured vehicle and the front section of
The Legal Proceedings against Certain Organs of State Act, 2002 requires that notice must be given to any organ of state which is to be sued within six months from the date on which the ‘debt’ becomes due. This law relates only to a damages claim. The damages claim may be a delictual, contractual or
Our courts are reticent in making an award for constitutional damages. They will first consider whether there is scope to develop the common law of damages to permit recovery before awarding constitutional damages, especially where the constitutional damages sought includes a punitive element.
The courts look carefully at whether there is an existing, appropriate remedy