A Swiss national, Christian Joachim Pollmann, 45-years-old, was awarded over $13.6 million in damages by the High Court after suffering traumatic brain injuries.
It is reportedly the record sum for personal injury claims in Singapore.
Pollman was the executive director of Julius Baer, a Swiss bank; he was cycling along Brickland Road in Bukit Batok when a car driven by Ye Xianrong, 36-years-old, crashed into him from behind.
Ye was checking his blind spot for traffic before filtering into another lane but he failed to keep a lookout ahead of him and got too close to Pollman.
He realised they were about to crash and jammed his brakes but it was already too late.
Pollman then spent 6 months in the hospital after being thrown off his bicycle, sustaining serious head injuries.
In 2016, Ye then pleaded guilty to causing grievous hurt to Pollman by a negligent act that endangers human life. He was fined $5,000 and banned for 3 years from driving.
In 2017, Ye was found by the High Court to be fully liable for Pollman’s injuries in a negligence suit filed against him; On 26 April 2021, Justice Vinodh Coomaraswamy then awarded Pollman, under loss of future income, an amount of more than $9.3 million.
Other damages included an amount of $1.09 million of future recurring medical expenses, and $1.54 million of pre-trial earnings.
Interim payments to Pollman totalling $3.1 million have been paid to him so far, with the damages being borne by Ye’s insurers.
Pollman reportedly cannot handle more than one task or person at a time, as well as having difficulties doing manual work and remember instructions due to his disabilities.
He also needs botox treatment twice a year to treat a facial nerve injury, which causes his right eye to close involuntarily when he bites or smiles.
The facial reconstruction operations to correct his facial asymmetry including a tissue transfer, fat grafting and face tightening.
The judge believed that Pollman would have been promoted to managing director senior adviser last yet had the accident not happened.
At the time of writing, both sets of lawyers are studying the judgment.
Image source: sharetransport.sg