SINGAPORE: Citing medical fees and loss of future earnings as a physiotherapist, a cyclist who was hit by a motorcyclist on Nicoll Highway in 2021 sought over S$500,000 in a civil suit.
However, Deputy Registrar Sim Mei Ling awarded the cyclist, Gino Ernest Ng, around $55,000 after finding his claims for future earnings speculative.
According to a judgment dated May 25, Ng was cycling on Nicoll Highway when the motorcyclist, Ang Eng Peng, collided with him.
The September 2021 accident left Ng with a spinal fracture and abrasions on his right knee and right forearm. He was placed on hospitalisation leave from Sept 4, 2021, to Nov 30, 2021.
In court, Ng’s medical expert testified that his spinal fracture would cause pain and chronic discomfort when treating patients. He noted that if Ng worked more than six hours, he would need a break the next day or require treatment from his colleagues.
Conversely, Ang’s medical expert said Ng’s fracture had healed well and would not significantly impair his ability to work.
Ng returned to work in December 2021 at his physiotherapy clinic, where he is a director and 50 per cent shareholder.
Following the accident, the clinic suffered a loss in revenue. Ng equated 50 per cent of this purported loss to his personal loss in earnings, which the deputy registrar said he had no basis to do.
Ng argued that the drop in revenue in 2022, the year after the accident, was caused by his inability to work long hours due to his injuries.
But the deputy registrar ruled that external business factors were actually to blame for the loss of revenue.
This included one of the clinic’s physiotherapists registering a competing company four days after Ng’s accident and poaching several of the clinic’s clients.
The number of people working at Ng’s clinic then fell from seven physiotherapists in 2021 to three to four in 2022.
The deputy registrar also noted that Ng had treated more patients on average and generated higher monthly fees in 2023 and 2024 than he did before the accident.
She said: “Fundamentally, the claim for pre-trial loss of earnings fails because the claimant has not proven what his personal loss is. Even if I accept that (the clinic) suffered a loss of revenue, this would be (the clinic’s) loss, and not the claimant’s.”
Despite dismissing Ng’s claims for loss of earnings as a physiotherapist, the deputy registrar ruled that Ng was entitled to $55,769 in compensation for pain and suffering, medical expenses and property damage to his bicycle. - The Straits Times/ANN
