The Madras High Court recently upheld the grant of compensation to a Christian convent for the death of a nun belonging to it..In effect, the Court appears to have endorsed the position that a religious organisation is eligible to claim compensation for the death of its volunteers, particularly when there is no other legal heir..The judgment stems from an appeal heard by Justice AM Basheer Ahamad at the Madurai Bench of the High Court, against a 2009 judgment of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT). Compensation had been claimed before the MACT by the St Maria Auxilium Sister’s Congress (convent), Tiruchi, for the death of Sister Alanagara Mary..Sister Alangara Mary was fatally injured when she was driving a two-wheeler, due to the negligent driving of a bus belonging to the State Transport Corporation. The MACT disposed of the claim by awarding a cumulative sum of Rs 3.22 lakh in favour of the convent..In their objection to the award, the government-appellant disputed locus standi of the convent to claim compensation as the legal representative/dependent of the deceased..The State Transport Corporation argued that the claimant/religious organisation and the deceased only shared an employer-employee relationship. It was contended that the employer (convent) cannot be a legal heir of the deceased employee (Sister Alangara Mary)..It was submitted that the deceased nun had been doing social service for the convent. While there were no records produced to attest to this, the Court noted that such fact was not denied by the appellant before the Tribunal..It was also noted that the MACT had granted compensation to the convent, considering the considerable loss they had suffered following the death of Sister Alangara Mary. As observed by the High Court,.“The deceased joined the claimant organization and did services to the Society after denouncing her family and was working as Sister under the claimaint organization/society prior to the date of accident. The Tribunal came to the conclusion that the claimant organization suffered considerable loss due to the death of the voluntary worker in a fatal accident.”.In support of this conclusion, the decision of the Supreme Court in Montfort Brothers of St Gabriel & Anr v United India Insurance & Anr etc was relied upon. In this case, it was held that a religious organization may suffer considerable loss due to the death of voluntary worker..Further, since the Motor Vehicles Act does not define the term “legal representative”, the term as defined in the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) would be relevant. Section 2(11) of the CPC defines a legal representative in the following terms,.“Legal representative’ may a person, who in law represents the estate of a deceased person and includes any person, who intermeddles with the estate of the deceased and where a party sues or is sued in a representative character the person on whom the estate devolves on the death of the party so suing or sued.”.In this background, the High Court also noted that there is no evidence that the deceased was having another legal representative on the date of the accident..The Court therefore dismissed the appeal, after affirming that the conduct of the bus driver was indeed negligent, and further that the awarded amount was not on the higher side, as contended by the appellant..Read the Judgment:
The Madras High Court recently upheld the grant of compensation to a Christian convent for the death of a nun belonging to it..In effect, the Court appears to have endorsed the position that a religious organisation is eligible to claim compensation for the death of its volunteers, particularly when there is no other legal heir..The judgment stems from an appeal heard by Justice AM Basheer Ahamad at the Madurai Bench of the High Court, against a 2009 judgment of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT). Compensation had been claimed before the MACT by the St Maria Auxilium Sister’s Congress (convent), Tiruchi, for the death of Sister Alanagara Mary..Sister Alangara Mary was fatally injured when she was driving a two-wheeler, due to the negligent driving of a bus belonging to the State Transport Corporation. The MACT disposed of the claim by awarding a cumulative sum of Rs 3.22 lakh in favour of the convent..In their objection to the award, the government-appellant disputed locus standi of the convent to claim compensation as the legal representative/dependent of the deceased..The State Transport Corporation argued that the claimant/religious organisation and the deceased only shared an employer-employee relationship. It was contended that the employer (convent) cannot be a legal heir of the deceased employee (Sister Alangara Mary)..It was submitted that the deceased nun had been doing social service for the convent. While there were no records produced to attest to this, the Court noted that such fact was not denied by the appellant before the Tribunal..It was also noted that the MACT had granted compensation to the convent, considering the considerable loss they had suffered following the death of Sister Alangara Mary. As observed by the High Court,.“The deceased joined the claimant organization and did services to the Society after denouncing her family and was working as Sister under the claimaint organization/society prior to the date of accident. The Tribunal came to the conclusion that the claimant organization suffered considerable loss due to the death of the voluntary worker in a fatal accident.”.In support of this conclusion, the decision of the Supreme Court in Montfort Brothers of St Gabriel & Anr v United India Insurance & Anr etc was relied upon. In this case, it was held that a religious organization may suffer considerable loss due to the death of voluntary worker..Further, since the Motor Vehicles Act does not define the term “legal representative”, the term as defined in the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) would be relevant. Section 2(11) of the CPC defines a legal representative in the following terms,.“Legal representative’ may a person, who in law represents the estate of a deceased person and includes any person, who intermeddles with the estate of the deceased and where a party sues or is sued in a representative character the person on whom the estate devolves on the death of the party so suing or sued.”.In this background, the High Court also noted that there is no evidence that the deceased was having another legal representative on the date of the accident..The Court therefore dismissed the appeal, after affirming that the conduct of the bus driver was indeed negligent, and further that the awarded amount was not on the higher side, as contended by the appellant..Read the Judgment:
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