An appeal court yesterday radically reduced the damages awarded by the First Hall of the Civil Court in 1998 to the heirs of a woman who died as a result of a traffic accident in 1993.

The first court had awarded the heirs Lm71,136 damages but this sum was yesterday reduced to Lm23,755 after the appellate court concluded that the original award was not in accordance with case law.

The case was originally filed by the heirs of the late Carmen Turner against Francis Agius.

Gasan Insurance Agency Limited later intervened into the suit.

The heirs claimed that Agius was responsible for the 1993 accident that had caused the death of Turner, a passenger in his car. At the time of her death, Turner was 17 years old.

The first Court had upheld the heirs' writ and had concluded that Agius was responsible for Turner's death in the degree of 95 per cent.

The Court of Appeal, composed of Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Joseph D. Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti, yesterday upheld that part of the first judgment that had found Agius responsible for the accident.

The appellate court found that Turner had borne five per cent of the responsibility as she had elected to sit on the lap of another person in the front seat of Agius' car.

However, the damages awarded were found not to comply with existing law.

The court upheld Agius' argument that local law awarded real damages only and that the first court had applied a too high multiplier to Turner's income for the purposes of calculating damages.

In establishing the damages due to Turner's heirs, the Court of Appeal ruled that it was going to apply the damages as established by the court-appointed legal expert, who had observed the normal rules applied in the majority of such cases.

As Turner had left no dependents, the Court of Appeal ruled that the damages due to her heirs ought to be established in the sum of Lm23,755.

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