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| Civil Law Act 1956 |
If an unemployed child below 18 dies in a road traffic accident, his parents can only claim for bereavement Section (7)(3)(iv)(a) of the Civil Law Act 1956 and for funeral expenses Section (7)(3)(iii) of the same act.
The amount for a claim for bereavement has been fixed at Rm 10,000.00 Section 7(3A).
For funeral expenses, one has to specifically prove the claim. This means producing receipts and witnesses. If one is unable to do so, the courts here normally take judicial notice and would award a sum between Rm2-Rm5K for funeral expenses. That's not much. You get my drift.
If the child was aged 18 or above, his parents won't even be able to claim for bereavement! Section 7(3B)(b) of the Act.
I must pause here to think a little as to why not? I can't really find a cogent reason, so I can only assume that our legislators in their wisdom must have seen it fit that parents should not grieve over the death of a child who was 18 or above but that it is alright to grieve if the deceased child was younger!
What about a spouse who died in a road traffic accident? Well. if at the time of the accident the spouse was aged 55 or above, then no matter how much he was earning before he died, his dependents meaning the surviving spouse, their children and surviving parents if any, won't be able to claim for dependency or loss of support (See the obnoxious Section 7(3)(iv)(a) again! ).
They can only claim for bereavement and funeral expenses.
I guess here too, our legislators in their wisdom must have thought that it isn't right to depend on someone who is middle-aged!
The only people who are happy with our legislators' wisdom are the motor insurers!
NB: Singapore and, If I am not mistaken, some other commonwealth countries, have similar legislations. So I guess legislators' wisdom is universal. Or did they just copy from each other?
What about the law in your country, if you are not a Malaysian?
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