P. PAPPAMMAL Vs. INTERNATIONAL SPACE RESEARCH ORGANISATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff is the appellant. She is the mother of R. Subramoniam who died on 11th September 1973 as a result of an accident. The case of the plaintiff is that while her son was travelling on the carrier of a bicycle along the road leading from the M.L.A. quarters to the Gas House Junction at Trivandrum at about 9 a.m. on 11th September 1973, a private bus K.L.V. 6866, owned and operated by the first defendant, the International Space Research Organisation, for carriage of its employees, and driven by the second defendant, hit and ran over her son as a result of which he died at about 12 a.m. at the Medical College Hospital, Trivandrum.

(2.) The plaintiff alleged that the accident occurred on account of the negligence of the defendants. She stated that the second defendant, while in the course of his employment, drove the bus rashly and negligently, as a result of which the vehicle hit her son and caused his death, and the second defendant as well as his employer, the first defendant, were fully responsible for all the consequences flowing from the accident and liable in damages to her. The second defendant has remained ex parte. It has not been disputed by the first defendant that if there was evidence to find that the second defendant was negligent, and the accident took place as a result of such negligence, the first defendant, as the employer, would be vicariously liable. However the first defendant contended that there was no negligence at all on the part of the second defendant and that the accident was caused by the negligence of the deceased. It relied on the testimony of the second defendant who deposed as D.W. 1. There was no other witness for the defence.

(3.) The court below, disbelieving the evidence of PWs 1 to 5, accepted the defence version of the incident and held that the plaintiff failed to prove that her son died as a result of the bus hitting him or running over him or that the second defendant was rash or negligent in his driving.