A young man, Alan Caruana, who was totally incapacitated following a traffic accident in 1998, has been awarded €1,250,000 in damages.

The judgement was delivered by Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo after a previous judgment, delivered in April 2009, had established that Daniel Bonnici was solely responsible for the accident.

Mr Caruana had requested the court to declare that Mr Bonnici was responsible for the traffic accident in which he had been injured in Notabile Road, Attard in August 1998.

Mr Justice Caruana Demajo declared that prior to the accident, which took place when Mr Caruana was 19 years old, Mr Caruana, his brother and his mother had planned to set up a commercial enterprise to take over the father’s restaurant business due to the latter retiring because of ill health.

However, this plan was not put into effect because Mr Caruana had suffered a one hundred per cent permanent disability as a result of the accident and his mother had to stop working to look after him.

The court heard that the projected income from the planned business was around €14,000 per annum for each of the three family members. This figure was reasonable and quite conservative, said the court.

Mr Justice Caruana Demajo said that due to Mr Caruana’s young age at the time of the accident, the award of damages was to be in the sum of €1,250,000. He ordered Mr Bonnici to pay this sum to Mr Caruana.

However, the court ordered that the sum of €55,905 which had already been paid to Mr Caruana by Mr Bonnici’s insurers was to be deducted from the damages awarded.