Abdul Malik Ishak JC

The respondent, a young agile boy of four years of age, ran across a red laterite kampong road and was knocked down by a motor cycle ridden by the first appellant, a postman. The boy sustained the following injuries:

(1) abrasion wound on the medial aspect of the left ankle; and

(2) fractured midshaft at the left tibia/fibula,

and he sued by his father and next friend, Ahmad bin Yusof.

The Sessions Court, Sungai Siput, Perak gave judgment to the respondent and held the appellants to be solely blameworthy. The appellants appealed against that decision.

The learned judge of the sessions court brushed aside the question of contributory negligence on the part of the respondent and, on the facts before him, found the appellants solely liable. The learned counsel for the appellants made a concerted attack and criticized the judgment of the sessions judge.

It is not disputed that the first appellant had completed his rounds for the day and was travelling along that stretch of red laterite kampong road to proceed to the main road. A witness, one Abdul Aziz bin Nordin, stated that as the boy darted across the road to his grandfather's house (incidentally the bo