Day +855 : Honey, I lost the case (1)

I am fine today.

I sent the above message to my wife this morning telling her that I lost a tribunal case :-(

I brought the car engine overheating incident that happened on 24 August, 2008 to the consumer tribunal and the hearing was fixed this morning.

The detail of the car engine overheat incident can be found in the following blog entries:

Day +782 : It happened again :-) (1)
Day +783 : It happened again :-( (2)
Day +784 : It happened again :-( (3)
Day +785 : It happened again :-( (4)
Day +786 : It happened again :-( (5)
Day +787 : It happened again :-( (6)
Day +806 : The bill = RM4299

In this case, I try to claim half of the cost that is attributed to the engine overheat repair from Twine Auto Services, the workshop that assured me the car cooling system was functioning properly. The total amount that I claim is RM1694.5.

I went to the tribunal court in the PKNS building, Shah Alam at 8:00am with my brother Richard, who is also attending a hearing session on a dispute of deposit refund from IOI Building Services, the condominium management company.

My ground of claim is based on contributory negligence – a term I learned from the judge today. The argument is that if the workshop didn’t assure me that the cooling system is functioning well, I would be more careful and thus the overheating incident might be avoided. It is no doubt that the driver has to bear the responsibility, however, the workshop owner should also be held responsible for the incident.

Secondly, the workshop didn’t perform a thorough examination of the cooling system before handing the car over to me because the car broke down within 45 minutes on the way from Puchong to Melaka. If it was thoroughly checked, the incident would be avoided.

With these valid arguments, I should win the case. But unfortunately, under such situation, the party who make the claim (claimant), has to prove something that is almost impossible to prove; the driving behavior of the driver :-(

To be continued and see you next post :-)