CIVIL LAW (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

3.24 p.m.

The Minister for Law and National Development (Mr E. W. Barker): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

As you know, Sir, section 12 of the Civil Law Ordinance (Chapter 24) provides for compensation to be paid to the family of a person for loss occasioned by his death caused by the wrongful act, neglect or default of another. Notwithstanding the death of the person injured, an action can be brought in court by his executor for the benefit of his wife, husband, parent and child, and in every such action the court may give such damages as it thinks fit proportionately to the loss resulting from such death to the dependants respectively for whom and for whose benefit such action was brought. In the present state of the law, however, any damages awarded by a court would be reduced by the amount of any pension or gratuity payable on the death of the deceased. The court in reducing an award follows well-established common law rules.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the operation of these rules often gives rise to hardship. The dependants of the deceased who are entitled to receive the pension or gratuity on his death are, in fact, placed at a disadvantage compared to the dependants of a deceased who are not so entitled. This is not difficult to appreciate if one recalls that the person entitled to receive a pension normally earns a reduced salary during his working life to compensate for the pension element payable when lie ceases to work, and it is this reduced salary that the court uses as a basis for assessing damages for the loss of future earnings. The dependants are further penalised because the court deducts from the total amount of damages to be awarded the amount of pension that is to be paid to the dependants. You will appreciate, Sir, that in cases involving the award of substantial damages, the dependants could, therefore, suffer a considerable loss by the operation of these common law rules.

The present Bill is, therefore, designed to remedy this state of affairs and to give statutory relief in the manner described in clause 2 to the dependants of deceased persons whose death is caused in the circumstances contemplated by section 12 of the Ordinance. The effect of the amending legislation will accordingly be that the court will be debarred from taking into account any pension, gratuity or other payment which may be payable on death when making an award under the above-mentioned section.

Mr Speaker, Sir, this Bill does not introduce a novel principle into the law. Section 12 of the Ordinance already provides that the court, when making an award, shall not take into account any sum payable to dependants of the deceased under any insurance policy. In this context, there is little difference in principle between the payment of insurance monies and the payment of a pension or gratuity as a result of death. The Government, therefore, considers that as a measure of relief to dependants, pension monies payable as a result of death should be treated in the same way as insurance monies and not, therefore, be taken into account by the court when an award of damages is made under that section of the Civil Law Ordinance.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Barker].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.