Civil Law Amendment

If you have read our articles on whether or not you can sue a careless driver for injuring you or causing the death of your family member, you would know that the law allows you to sue and claim for money to cover things like your pain and suffering, your lost salary, family members can even sue for the loss of support from the deceased family member. 

However, while the law allows you to claim all of this, there are requirements to fulfil. The Civil Law Act 1956 (“CLA 1956”) lists down these requirements and they differ slightly from whether the claim is for personal injuries or fatal accidents. We won’t rehash on the requirements in detail but the good news is, Parliament has decided to make some changes to the requirement in order to reflect the needs of Malaysians today. 

The Civil Law (Amendment) Bill 2018 which was tabled in Parliament is proposing several key changes and the first is...

You can now claim for your salary up to the age of 60!

Before this, claims for both personal injuries and fatal accidents were capped up to the age of 55 only. This can be found in section 7 and section 28A of the CLA for personal injuries and fatal accident claims respectively. The law basically allows you to claim the monthly salary that you were earning at the time of the accident up to the age of 55.

What this means is this, if you got into an accident and can no longer work or if the breadwinner of your family passes away from a fatal accident, the amount of salary that can be claimed is only up to the age of 55. To make it easier, let’s look at this example:

Ali, a 30 year old, gets into an accident and he is disabled for life.

Due to this disability, he is unable to work anymore. 

If Ali wasn’t injured, he planned to work until he was 65 and he tried to claim for his salary up till the age of 65.

However, because the law states that salaries can only be claimed up to the age of 55, Ali’s maximum claim is only up to that age.

The amendment that is being proposed in Parliament currently is to extend the age up to 60 years old. This is to reflect the situation that many Malaysians don’t retire at the age of 55. Most of us work past the mandatory retirement age and this increase (if it gets passed), will benefit people who are injured or their family members. 

The next amendment that is proposed is a little iffy to explain…

You might not have to be in good health to claim

We are not referring to how you have to be hale enough to climb the steps to court to sue the drunk driver that plowed into you but we are referring to the second requirement for claiming for damages for personal injuries and fatal accidents, that you were in good health but for the injury. This is found in section 7 and section 28A:

“...was in good health but for the injury...”

The case laws on this point have been conflicting because in the case of Osman Effendi bin Mahmud v Mohd Noh bin Khamis, the judge said that as long as it was established that you were working and earning at the time of the accident, then the courts will presume that you were in good health. On the other hand, in the case of Sumarni v Yow Bing Hon, the judge rejected the claim completely because they failed to produce concrete evidence of good health. 

Given the difference in interpreting the stature, Parliament is proposing to remove the requirement of good health entirely. Aside from these two major amendments, there are another two slightly smaller amendments.

There is now a bigger claim for fatal injuries

Known as the bereavement claim, it is a claim for the family members of the deceased person. Found in section 7 of the CLA, the current bereavement claim is capped at RM10,000 and can only be claimed by a spouse or a parent of a minor, unmarried child. 

(3A) An action under this section may consist of or include a claim for damages for bereavement and, subject to subsection (3D), the sum to be awarded as damages under this subsection shall be ten thousand ringgit.

(3B) A claim for damages for bereavement shall only be for the benefit—

(a) of the spouse of the person deceased; and

(b) where the person deceased was a minor and never married, of his parents.

The new amendments that are being proposed would increase the bereavement claim to RM50,000 and allow claims from spouses, parents, and children. This means that aside from raising the amount that can be claimed, the law is proposed to be expanded to include claims from all parents and children. The final amendment that is proposed is pretty monumental because it intends to include claims from persons with disabilities that were under the care of the deceased person. 

Currently, the law defines dependents in section 7(2) as spouse, parents, and children. This definitions include grandparents, grandchildren, stepchildren, and illegitimate children but it doesn’t include siblings (Chan Chin Ming v Lim Yoke Eng) nor anyone beyond the defined scope. The proposal will allow disabled persons (whether they may be parents or siblings or potentially, even those who are not blood related) to claim for loss of support in the event of their caretaker’s death.