ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED Vs. EDWARD DCRUZ RODRIGUES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BOTH these appeals are disposed of by the common judgment as they arise out of one and single accident, dated 27-1-1985. First Appeal No. 94 of 1988 is preferred by the Insurance Company against the finding of the Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal in Claim Petition No. 65 of 1985 that the liability of the Insurance Company is Rs. 50,000/- as against the contention raised on behalf of the insurers that the liability of the Insurance Company is Rs. 15,000/ -. First Appeal No. 134 of 1989 is by appellant/original respondent No. 2 Kadamba Transport Corporation on the ground that the Compensation of Rs. 1,00,000/- awarded in respect of the deceased lady aged about 65 years was disproportionately high and that it needed to be scaled down to a level which should represent the just and reasonable compensation which in turn has to be worked out on the basis of the number of years of service the deceased would have rendered to the family. There is also one ground raised in the appeal by Kadamba Transport Corporation that the fixation of liability of the insurance Company at Rs. 50,000/- may not also be proper.

(2.) IN order to understand the controversy involved in both the appeals, few facts shall have to be elucidated. The deceased - Nasimtente Rodrigues was travelling by the transport bus belonging to Kadamba Transport on 27-1-1985. The bus was proceeding from Benaulim to Orlim and it is claimed by the claimants that the bus reached at Varca at about 7. 45 p. m. and stopped at a bus stop which was about 20 metres away from the house of the deceased. In this regard, it will have to be stated that the claimants are the son and the daughter of the deceased and that they were all staying together at the above residence. The further facts are that the bus was halted for enabling the passengers to get down and accordingly the deceased got one foot down on the road whereas her another foot was on the foot-board of the bus. She was about to alight from the bus, but unfortunately the bus started suddenly and picked up the motion as a result of which the deceased fell down and came beneath the rear wheel of the bus and sustained injuries to which she later on succumbed. The claimants put forth the claim of Rs. l,85,000/- under various heads.

(3.) THIS claim was resisted on behalf of the respondents and the common contention was that the negligence was on the part of the deceased passenger and that the same cannot be attributed to the driver and owner. The insurers contended that their liability was of Rs. 15,000/- in regard to the passenger carried in the bus.