High Court awards boy RM30,000 over broken leg in religious class

The High Court in Kuala Terengganu awarded RM30,000 in damages to a nine-year-old boy who suffered a broken leg after finding that his Quran and Fardu Ain teacher slammed him onto a chair during class.

Justice Yusrin Faidz Yusoff also held Yayasan Islam Terengganu vicariously liable for the actions of its employee, Ahmad Mursyidin Abdullah.

In his grounds of judgment, Yusrin allowed the boy’s appeal against a sessions court decision that dismissed his claim arising from the July 6, 2022 incident at SK Tasek, Marang.

The boy, who sued through his mother, alleged that the teacher lifted him and slammed him onto a chair, causing a fracture to his right tibia or shinbone.

The defendants maintained that the boy fell while playing in class and that the teacher merely lifted him onto a chair.

However, the High Court found that the sessions court erred in rejecting the evidence of two child eyewitnesses who testified that they saw the teacher slam the boy onto the chair.

Yusrin said the suggestion that the witnesses had been coached or influenced by the boy’s mother was never put to them during cross-examination.

“A court cannot reject evidence merely on the suspicion that a witness may have been influenced without clear and cogent evidence to that effect,” he said.

He also faulted the sessions court for rejecting the orthopaedic specialist’s evidence that the injury was consistent with an impact or strike.

“The learned trial judge was not a medical expert and was not qualified to interpret medical literature or to form her own conclusions about the mechanism of injury,” he said.

Yusrin found the teacher primarily liable for assault and battery and alternatively for negligence. He added that the wrongful act was sufficiently connected to his teaching and disciplinary responsibilities to establish the employer’s vicarious liability.

However, he declined to award aggravated and exemplary damages, finding insufficient evidence of malice, oppression or other circumstances warranting such awards.

The defendants were also ordered to pay RM17,000 in costs, with interest at 5% per annum on the damages accruing from the date the writ was filed until full settlement.

The court ordered the refund of the RM10,000 security for costs deposited by the plaintiff.

The defendants have filed a notice of appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Rafaei Adnan, Hazwan Hamidun and Alif Danial Ahmad Shahrulnizam appeared for the boy while Saiffuddin Othman and Yuhana Junaidi represented the teacher and Yayasan Islam Terengganu.

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