PUTRAJAYA, 25 Jun (Bernama) -- It brings relief to a retired servicemen when
the Court of Appeal here today upheld a High Court decision in finding three
teachers and the principal of Sekolah Menengah Teknik Gombak, the school and the
Education Ministry negligent in ensuring the safety of students during a school
trip to Tasik Chini eight years ago.
The panel of judges, led by Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail, unanimously agreed
that the High Court judge who presided the case had not erred when making the
decision.
As such, he set aside the appellants'' appeal and ordered them to pay cost of
RM20,000 to the respondent.
Sitting with Wahab were Datuk Clement Allan Skinner and Mah Weng Kwai.
In the High Court decision on June 30 last year, Rosly Yusof, who had filed
the suit on behalf of his daughter, Siti Zanatul Nabilah Rosly, was granted
RM350,000 in damages for Siti Zanatul''s pain and sufferings and RM84,000 in
nursing care at an interest of eight per cent.
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COURT-STUDENT 2 PUTRAJAYA
Senior federal counsel Azizan Md Arshad and Shaiful Nizam represented the
appellants, while lawyer Suhaila Mohd Daud represented Rosly.
Rosly, 60, when met by reporters later, said the incident which befell his
daughter eight years ago had changed his family''s life.
"Siti Zanatul Nabilah was a friendly and intelligent girl, but since eight
years ago she became paralysed and is bed-ridden.
"There is no sign that she will recover and be her normal self," he added.
Siti Zanatul Nabilah, now 25, became paralysed due to lack of oxygen when
she and four others suffered breathing difficulties and submerged underwater
while swimming at the Pancing waterfall in Pahang during a school trip to Tasik
Chini in 2004.
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COURT-STUDENT 3 (LAST) PUTRAJAYA
The incident happened when Siti Zanatul Nabilah was in Form Five at Sekolah
Menengah Teknik Gombak and the trip was organised as part of her class'' civil
engineering practical programme.
Rosly claimed that the trip to the Pancing waterfall was not in the
itinerary of the school trip to Tasik China.
However, he said, the accident could have been avoided had the school
authority and the teachers took the necessary precaution when taking students on
field trips away from school.
"We don''t know how long more can we care for her. Her sister and brothers,
who also help to take care of her, have their own families to attend to," he
added.
He said Siti Zanatul Nabilah''s mother, Siti Zuriah Omar, 54, had since
stopped working as a cook to look after their daughter who continued to receive
treatment at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
-- BERNAMA
SAN KHY MIS