RS v Road Accident Fund (49899/17) [2020] ZAGPPHC (21 January 2020)

• Author: F.H.H. Kehrhahn
• DOI: 10.17159/2225-7160/2020/v53a13
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Pages: 188-193
• Published date: 01 June 2020

188 2020 De Jure Law Journal

Recent case law

RS v Road Accident Fund

(49899/17) [2020]

ZAGPPHC

(21 January 2020)

Third party claim- Eleventh hour rejection of seriousness of injury- Not to follow the

appeal process in terms of Regulation 3

1Introduction

In this case the plaintiff, Salig, claimed damages from the defendant, the

RAF, for the harm that it had suffered arising from the negligent driving

of a motor vehicle by the insured driver. The defendant accepted liability

in respect of all of the harm suffered by the plaintiff, but the quantum

pertaining to loss of income and general damages remained in dispute.

This case note concerns solely the part of the judgment that dealt with

general damages.

2 Applicable law

General (or ‘non-patrimonial’) damages is a reduction in a legal subject’s

quality of highly personal interests that does not change his/her

economic position [Visser & Potgieter Skadevergoedingsreg (2003) 97;

Edouard v Administrator Natal 1989 (2) SA 368 (D) at 386]. According to

Visser and Potgieter, personality interests includes a person’s physical

integrity, pain and suffering, emotional shock, disfigurement, a reduced

life expectancy and loss of life amenities, and because of the personal,

non-pecuniary and subjective nature of these interests, it is difficult to

quantify, yet it remains recoverable [Hendricks v President Insurance

1993 (3) SA 158 (C); Visser & Potgieter Skadevergoedingsreg (2003) 101-

105].

Prior to 1 August 2008, road accident victims (or third parties) could

claim general damages from the Road Accident Fund (hereinafter ‘the

Fund’ or ‘RAF’) without any limitations:[see Road Accident Fund v Duma,

Road Accident Fund v Kubeka, Road Accident Fund v Meyer, Road Accident

Fund v Mokoena 2013 (6) SA 9 (SCA) para 3]. On 1 August 2008 the Road

Accident Fund Amendment Act 19 of 2005 took effect, thereby

amending section 17(1) of the Road Accident Fund Act 56 of 1996, by

introducing limitations on the Fund’s liability for general damages. The

‘obligation of the Fund to compensate a third party for non-pecuniary loss

shall be limited to compensation for a serious injury as contemplated in

subsection (1A) and shall be paid by way of a lump sum.’ [see Section

How to cite: Kehrhahn ‘RS v Road Accident Fund (49899/17) [2020] ZAGPPHC (21 January 2020)’

De Jure Law Journal 188-193

http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2225-7160/2020/v53a13