The court found that the RAF’s ‘undertakings’ do not comply with the law or prior court orders. Picture: Moneyweb A Road Accident Fund (RAF) counter application for a high court order that would have reduced the amount the fund would have to pay road accident victims for treatment of injuries and/or illnesses and to stop it issuing claimants “a blank cheque” has been dismissed with punitive costs. Judge Petrus van Niekerk, in a judgment handed down in the High Court in Pretoria last week, said the applicants – five RAF claimants – sought a punitive order for costs against the RAF and its former CEO Collins Letsoalo.
Judge van Niekerk said he is of the view the applicants are entitled to costs on a punitive scale for a number of reasons. He said the authorities referred to the RAF’s ‘undertakings’ as being “clearly disposed of the legal principles” that inform the issue in the application, and most were readily available at the time when the counter application was launched”. “It thus raises questions about the underlying motive for this application.
The RAF lodged the counter application after an application by five claimants for a contempt of court order against the fund and Letsoalo, because of the failure to comply with high court orders to provide undertakings in terms of the RAF Act to the claimants for injuries they sustained in motor vehicle accidents. The applicants are Emm Muller, Samuel Sithole, Hermanus Krause, Ramoletsi Makgopa and Leon Bezuidenhout. Judge van Niekerk said the counter application by the RAF follows “a chequered history of litigation” between Muller, which eventually culminated in the other four applicants being joined as interested parties in the litigation after the fund instituted the counter application.
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Muller instituted an action against the RAF during March 2016, claiming damages for injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident and for which the fund was held liable for 100% of her proven and agreed damages in terms of an order issued by the High Court in Pretoria on 30 November 2017. Her claim for general damages was finalised on 16 October 2020, and the court made a further order on that date regarding the RAF undertakings in terms of the RAF Act for injuries she sustained in a motor vehicle collision on 27 September 2015.
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