Court Upholds Damages Award to Me Moollan & Rejects Insurance’s Appeal

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court has rejected the appeal filed by insurance company Phoenix and upheld the damages award of Rs 225 million to Me Iqbal Moollan. The court had initially ruled in favor of Moollan on January 30, 2023, but the insurance company appealed the decision.

On July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Rehana Mungly-Gulbul and Justice Iqbal Maghooa dismissed the appeal and slightly modified the damages award.

The court decided to strike out paragraph 22 of the original judgment, which related to the interest payable on the damages.

The judges ruled that imposing a 15% interest rate on the appellant for a period of six and a half years since the original judgment would be unfair.

Instead, they ordered the payment of interest “at the prevailing legal rate” for the period from July 21, 2016, when the case was concluded, to January 30, 2023.

The court awarded damages for expenses incurred as a result of the accident, amounting to Rs 9,569,271.87 and $197,568.72 (or its equivalent in Mauritian rupees) and $20,824 (or its equivalent in Mauritian rupees).

The judges also granted 15% interest on losses of income for the period from May 2004 to December 2008, totaling Rs 60.5 million.

However, the court declined to award interest on moral damages and losses representing loss of future earnings.

The accident occurred on April 29, 2004, at around 11:30 am when Moollan was driving his car E570 on the highway from Port-Louis via Réduit. He suffered multiple injuries after colliding with another vehicle driven by an imprudent driver. Moollan’s vehicle was severely damaged.

Moollan was represented by lawyers J. Smouha KC, Désiré Basset SC, Yousuf Aboobaker SC, Robin Ramburn SC, K. Namdarkhan and Hajee Abdoula advocate.

Source: l’Express