Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court, yesterday ordered Claire Govè to pay Lm2,324 damages to John Soler after the latter was injured in a traffic accident in 1997.

Soler and his wife Tessie had sued Govè and Fogg Insurance Agencies later intervened into the suit. John Soler claimed that he had been injured in a collision in January 1997 when a car driven by Govè had crashed into his motorbike in Rue d'Argens, Gzira.

The court was requested to hold Govè liable in damages.

On her part, Govè claimed that Soler was to blame for the accident and she requested the court to condemn him to make good the damages she had sustained to her car.

In its judgment the court ruled that there was no doubt that Rue d'Argens was the principal road while Manoel Road, which was the road Govè had emerged from, was the secondary road. There was also a stop sign at the junction between Manoel Road and Rue d'Argens.

There was therefore no doubt that Govè was responsible for the accident as she had emerged from a side street.

In liquidating the damages the court took into consideration the fact that Soler was 57 at the time of the accident and that he had not produced much evidence about the work he used to carry out nor about the payment he used to receive.

The court had to take into consideration not only the interests of the person who had sustained damages but also those of the person who had caused the damages. The latter had to be held responsible only for the damages she had caused and which were satisfactorily proven.

As a result, Soler ought to have produced all the evidence at his disposal and not rest his case upon an unsubstantiated allegation.

It resulted that Soler had sustained a 12 per cent permanent disability and the court established the damages not on Soler's life expectancy but upon his working life and his state of health.

Govè and the insurance company were therefore ordered to pay Soler Lm2,324 damages.