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Paralysed Resident Sues Town Council

In a landmark case, a resident who slipped and fell down on a walkway during a rainy day is suing his Town Council for negligence and failing to maintain the walkway properly.

As a result of the fall, the 46-year old father of two was paralysed from the neck down, became bed-ridden (and thus could not work), and needed extensive ongoing medical care. Three years after the incident, the man is still bed-ridden.

The man is now seeking compensation from Sembawang Town Council for medical expenses, loss of earnings and damages for pain and suffering.

Sembawang Town Council has denied any liability to the man and added that it had hired EM Services, to manage the estate (The chief operating officer of EM Services is former PAP MP for Hong Kah GRC, Mr Ang Mong Seng).

This case could very well define the extent to which a town council is responsible for injuries sustained by residents in the common areas in housing estates.

Personally, while I sympathize with this man, I doubt he will succeed in his lawsuit.

The chances of such a freak accident happening to any one of us is actually very low. But if it happens, are we adequately prepared for it?

Which is why I always stress the importance of having the correct type of insurance to my clients. I have encountered people who are paying a lot in insurance premiums but in reality, their actual coverage is quite low.

This is because a lot of these premiums go into savings type of policies.

And unfortunately, because these people are already paying a lot in premiums, they are reluctant to increase their coverage to address their gaps.

Insurance is not about how much you are paying, but what you are covered for.

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8 comments
Nuts says 12 years ago

A comprehensive Shield plan to take care of hospital bills.

Cheap mortgage insurance to take care of outstanding mortgage in event of death or TPD.

You may also consider similar cheap Reducing Term insurance to cover outstanding car loan or other large debts.

A large enough (10X of your annual income) and yet affordable Term insurance to take care of living expenses for dependants and self, in case of death or TPD.

For low-income families, they may use cheap PA insurance to complement Term insurance, if cannot afford the full coverage.

For middle & upper-income, you may consider Disability Income or Income Replacement insurance, but I find these plans expensive in S’pore.

Reply
WY says 12 years ago

so in this unfortunate case, wat type of insurance do u think the above victim ought to have?

Reply
    Martin Lee says 12 years ago

    WY,

    Nuts has answered your question.

    In this case, a H&S plan and PA plan would have been very useful. And these two two forms of insurance are not expensive.

    Reply
Jason says 12 years ago

“Sembawang Town Council has denied any liability to the man and added that it had hired EM Services, to manage the estate (The chief operating officer of EM Services is former PAP MP for Hong Kah GRC, Mr Ang Mong Seng).”

Isn’t there a conflict of interest? MP for the GRC and award the contract to his own company?
Town Council is really redundant. All the services should be back to the respective Ministries and we will have lower conservancy charges every month. That’s right, cut away the so-called “professional” middle man.

Reply
    Martin Lee says 12 years ago

    In my opinion, all town councils should be managed independently without the interference of the political party.

    But by putting a linkage there, it makes people less likely to want to vote for a new person.

    Reply
      Jason says 12 years ago

      All the tasks or roles handled by the Town Council were previously managed by HDB and MND. TC is redundant and waste of peoples’ money. The only advantage to us is single point of contact.

      Reply
Jason says 12 years ago

Well said.

The main reason why most of us bought insurance policy that does not really meet our needs is because 99.99% of the so-called financial planners are actually financial sale persons. They are more concern about the commissions that they are earning rather than focusing on what their clients needed and gives proper advise to the client what they actually needs.

I received several calls claiming that they are calling on behalf of their professional financial planners, and would like to meet up with me to assist in my financial planning. But before they can schedule an appointment, they need to know how much I have in my CPF account !!! I hang up the phone immediately.

Personally, investment is investment, and protection is protection, I won’t mix the two together.

It help to learn more about financial planning ourselves and knows our actual needs before meeting any of the financial planners. Suze Orman show is a good place to start.

Hope Martin Lee is among the 0.01% who is the professional and ethical financial planner. ๐Ÿ™‚

Reply
    Martin Lee says 12 years ago

    Dear Jason,

    Not for me to say, but for others to judge. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
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