JUDGMENT

Ong CJ:

This appeal illustrates the difficulties which all too frequently confront the person injured in a road accident when the defendant has left the country or his whereabouts are unknown. In this case, fortunately for the plaintiff, the solicitors instructed by him have shown commendable industry and tenacity, with the result that, should he succeed in the action, he would not be balked of the compensation due to him.

The plaintiff was a passenger in a motor-car on 16 May 1965 when another vehicle owned and driven by the defendant, an Austrian engineer on a temporary assignment in Perak, ran into it from behind, causing the plaintiff serious bodily injury. Some twelve months later, when the plaintiff's solicitors were instructed to issue writ in the action, it was discovered that the defendant had left Malaya on 24 August 1965 with no intention of returning, He had left with his former employers an address at Steiermark in Austria where they believed he was residing. On 20 July 1966 the senior assistant Registrar of the High Court made an order giving the plaintiff leave to serve notice of the writ on the defendant at the designated address "or elsewhere in Austria". On