(1.) THE appellants in this appeal are the claimants in O.P. (MV) No.1449 of 1999 before the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal, Pathanamthitta. Their son Jayakumar died in a motor accident on account of the negligent driving of a vehicle owned by the 1st respondent and insured with the 2nd respondent. The appellants filed the original petition claiming compensation for the death of their son. The Tribunal found negligence on the part of the driver of the vehicle and found that the respondents are liable to pay to the appellants compensation for the death of Jayakumar. Thereafter the Tribunal awarded compensation under various heads as follows:
(2.) DISSATISFIED with the compensation awarded, the appellants have filed this appeal claiming enhanced compensation. The primary contention of the appellants is that the Tribunal has arbitrarily fixed the monthly income of the deceased only as Rs.1,500/- although the claim of the appellants was for Rs.4,500/-. According to the appellants, as is clear from Ext.A1-F.I.R, at the earliest point of time after the accident, the 2nd appellant had given a statement in which it has been specifically stated that the deceased was employed in a courier service. An employee of a courier service would get much more than Rs.1,500/- per month is the contention. It is also the contention of the appellants that the Tribunal did not provide for future prospects of the deceased while fixing the income of the deceased. It is contended that the compensation for pain and suffering, miscellaneous expenses, loss of love and affection, loss of estate are also on the lower side. It is further submitted that the Tribunal has taken the multiplier as 13 although in the decision of the Supreme Court in Sarla Verma v. Delhi Transport Corporation [2010 (2) KLT 802 (SC)], for persons aged between 40-45 years which the appellants 1 and 2 are, the multiplier to be adopted is 14.
(3.) TAKING into account all these facts, we are inclined to fix the monthly income of the deceased including future prospects as Rs.2,000/- per month. The parents of the deceased are aged 43 years and 45 years respectively. The multiplier has to be fixed based on the age of the parents. In Sarla Verma (Supra) for persons of the age group 40-45 years, the multiplier fixed is 14. Since there are more than two dependents, 1/3rd has to be deducted from the monthly income of the deceased for personal expenses. Calculated thus, the appellants would be entitled to Rs.2,24,000/- as compensation for loss of dependency (Rs.2,000/- x 12 x 14 x 2/3) instead of Rs.1,56,000/-. The appellants would be entitled to additional compensation of Rs.78,000/- under this head.