Accident victim gets record N$80 million

THE record books were rewritten in the High Court this week, when a staggering damages claim of over N$222 million lodged by a London financial broker who was paralysed in a car accident in Namibia almost three years ago was settled for an unprecedented N$80 million.

It is the largest settlement ever recorded in any motor vehicle accident claim in Namibia, according to Raymond Heathcote, who was set to be part of the claimant’s legal team during the hearing of the case in the High Court. Kelly Ann Moss, who worked as a convertible securities broker in London until a debilitating car accident during a Namibian holiday forever changed her life, sued the owners of Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge, Gold Venture Lodges, and an employee of the company, Marcelino Henckert.By agreement between Moss, Gold Venture Lodges, which trades as Conservation Corporation Africa, and Henckert, the settlement was made an order of the court by Judge Louis Muller on Tuesday.Judge Muller had been set to start hearing testimony on Moss’s damages claim from Tuesday onwards.With some 20 expert witnesses listed to testify on Moss’s behalf alone already, it was estimated that the hearing of evidence would have taken between three to four weeks at least.In terms of the settlement, Gold Venture Lodges and Henckert, or either of them, have to pay Moss N$80 million, as well as her legal fees and the fees and expenses of her expert witnesses.Gold Venture Lodges’ insurance company will have to carry the costs of the settlement.It was one month after her fortieth birthday that an accident on the road between Sossusvlei and the Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge on May 12 2003 changed Moss’s life irreversibly.Until then, she had worked in a high-paying job in the financial industry in London, where she was a bond dealer.According to the case documents filed with the High Court as part of Moss’s claim, she had been earning an annual average income of 238 220 British Pounds (some N$2,56 million at the current exchange rate) over the five years before the accident.The accident happened when a Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge Land Rover driven by Henckert overturned.Moss sustained a spinal injury that left her paralysed.She sued the company and Henckert, claiming that either one of them or both had caused the accident through their negligence or by having failed to ensure that the vehicle was safe and roadworthy – claims which they both denied.”I do not anticipate any recovery from her tetraplegia,” a consultant surgeon in spinal injuries, Dr BP Gardner, who compiled a report on Moss’s medical condition for the court case, states in the report filed with the High Court.”This means that she will have good movement of her shoulders, good elbow flexion but no extension, good wrist dorsiflexion but no wrist palmar flexion,” he reported.”She will never regain active useful movement of her hands, chest, abdomen or legs.(…) She will always require a greater or lesser degree of help with every aspect of life, necessitating 24-hour live-in care.”In effect she has two legs that are useless and two arms where neither hand works, the elbows won’t extend and the wrists voluntarily go only one way,” Gardner stated.Statistically, she has only a small to very small prospect of re-employment, Gardner reported.According to other documents filed to support Moss’s damages claim, it has been estimated that her future full-time nursing and other medical costs would amount to the equivalent of N$147,5 million.This figure includes projected nursing and medical costs that Moss can expect to incur in the United States, where she was born and grew up, to the tune of some US$361 371 a year – for a total of US$14,458 million until she reaches a projected age of 80.Other future costs related to her medical condition – this would include things like adapting her accommodation to cater for her condition, and accompanying increased household costs – are estimated to amount to some U$8 million over the rest of her lifetime.Considering the likelihood that she will never be able to return to her previous high-earning career, the earnings that she would lose until she reached what would have been her projected retirement age of 65 have been calculated at some 5,834 million British Pounds – or the equivalent of some N$67,67 million, in the court documents forming part of her case.By law, the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund of Namibia’s liability to Moss as a result of the accident was limited to a total amount of N$730 000.This was taken into account in the calculation of the money that she claimed from Henckert and Gold Venture Lodges.The MVA Fund was not a party in the case.Kelly Ann Moss, who worked as a convertible securities broker in London until a debilitating car accident during a Namibian holiday forever changed her life, sued the owners of Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge, Gold Venture Lodges, and an employee of the company, Marcelino Henckert.By agreement between Moss, Gold Venture Lodges, which trades as Conservation Corporation Africa, and Henckert, the settlement was made an order of the court by Judge Louis Muller on Tuesday.Judge Muller had been set to start hearing testimony on Moss’s damages claim from Tuesday onwards. With some 20 expert witnesses listed to testify on Moss’s behalf alone already, it was estimated that the hearing of evidence would have taken between three to four weeks at least.In terms of the settlement, Gold Venture Lodges and Henckert, or either of them, have to pay Moss N$80 million, as well as her legal fees and the fees and expenses of her expert witnesses.Gold Venture Lodges’ insurance company will have to carry the costs of the settlement.It was one month after her fortieth birthday that an accident on the road between Sossusvlei and the Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge on May 12 2003 changed Moss’s life irreversibly.Until then, she had worked in a high-paying job in the financial industry in London, where she was a bond dealer.According to the case documents filed with the High Court as part of Moss’s claim, she had been earning an annual average income of 238 220 British Pounds (some N$2,56 million at the current exchange rate) over the five years before the accident.The accident happened when a Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge Land Rover driven by Henckert overturned.Moss sustained a spinal injury that left her paralysed.She sued the company and Henckert, claiming that either one of them or both had caused the accident through their negligence or by having failed to ensure that the vehicle was safe and roadworthy – claims which they both denied.”I do not anticipate any recovery from her tetraplegia,” a consultant surgeon in spinal injuries, Dr BP Gardner, who compiled a report on Moss’s medical condition for the court case, states in the report filed with the High Court.”This means that she will have good movement of her shoulders, good elbow flexion but no extension, good wrist dorsiflexion but no wrist palmar flexion,” he reported.”She will never regain active useful movement of her hands, chest, abdomen or legs.(…) She will always require a greater or lesser degree of help with every aspect of life, necessitating 24-hour live-in care.”In effect she has two legs that are useless and two arms where neither hand works, the elbows won’t extend and the wrists voluntarily go only one way,” Gardner stated.Statistically, she has only a small to very small prospect of re-employment, Gardner reported.According to other documents filed to support Moss’s damages claim, it has been estimated that her future full-time nursing and other medical costs would amount to the equivalent of N$147,5 million.This figure includes projected nursing and medical costs that Moss can expect to incur in the United States, where she was born and grew up, to the tune of some US$361 371 a year – for a total of US$14,458 million until she reaches a projected age of 80.Other future costs related to her medical condition – this would include things like adapting her accommodation to cater for her condition, and accompanying increased household costs – are estimated to amount to some U$8 million over the rest of her lifetime.Considering the likelihood that she will never be able to return to her previous high-earning career, the earnings that she would lose until she reached what would have been her projected retirement age of 65 have been calculated at some 5,834 million British Pounds – or the equivalent of some N$67,67 million, in the court documents forming part of her case.By law, the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund of Namibia’s liability to Moss as a result of the accident was limited to a total amount of N$730 000.This was taken into account in the calculation of the money that she claimed from Henckert and Gold Venture Lodges.The MVA Fund was not a party in the case.