Plaintiff Fails To Establish Causation

In the matter of JM Grove v Road Accident Fund & 1 Other a seriously injured Plaintiff failed in her appeal against the judgment of the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.  The action related to a claim for damages brought by Ms Grove after sustaining serious injuries in a motor vehicle collision which took place on the night of 4 November 2005.

At the time of the collision the Appellant was a passenger in the vehicle then being driven by the Second Respondent.  On the basis of the evidence presented the Court accepted that the Second Respondent was probably dicing with a vehicle being driven by the Second Respondent’s friend and that the manner in which they were both driving was undoubtedly negligent, however, the negligence on the part of the driver of the other vehicle did not cause anything that could be held to have caused the Second Respondent to lose control of his vehicle and collide with a wall.

The Court consequently held that the sole cause of the accident was the fact that the Second Respondent himself lost control of his vehicle before it left the road and hit a wall and there was therefore no causal nexus between the driving by the driver of the second vehicle and the accident.

The Road Accident Fund was therefore only liable for R25 000 of the Appellant’s proven damages, with the Second Respondent being held liable for the balance of the proven damages exceeding this statutory limit.

For a full copy of the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal click here.