Woman run over by one-time MEP candidate awarded €116,000 in compensation

A lawyer and one-time PN MEP candidate has been ordered to pay damages to a tourist who suffered permanent disability after he had run her over in 2018.

In his sworn reply, Kevin Plumpton had not contested his liability for the incident, in which his Ford Kuga had mounted the pavement in Triq Santa Marija, Sliema and ran over the Polish woman at around 6pm on 13 April 2018. However, Plumpton had challenged her claim for monetary damages, asking that the woman provide evidence to support it.

In a judgment handed down by the First Hall of the Civil Court, Mr Justice Toni Abela noted that the woman had been on holiday in Malta with her mother and had been looking at shop windows in Sliema when the incident occurred. She was 36 years old at the time.

A court-appointed medical expert had reported that the woman had suffered severe injuries of a permanent nature.

“The right hip lost practically half of the normal range of movement, and continues to restrict her walking distance and disturb her sleep. Traumatic dislocation of a hip, and more so a fracture dislocation of a hip, increases the possibility of arthritis setting in,” the doctor said, noting that in this case, both of the victim’s hips had suffered this fate.

The fractures to her lower limbs would cause her to suffer ankle pain when walking on uneven ground and make her ankles more prone to degenerative conditions such as arthritis.

As well as the cumulative adverse effect on mobility caused by damage to both lower limbs, the woman had also suffered damage to her pelvis which, besides causing back pain, would affect her ability to give birth, the doctor added.

In calculating the amount of compensation due, the court pointed out that although the woman had been a housewife at the time and therefore did not draw a salary, this did not exclude the possibility of her finding a job in the future, highlighting the fact that she also had academic qualifications. 

For this reason, the judge calculated the woman’s loss of potential earnings on the basis of the average Maltese salary, which he said, quoting local website thedispatch.mt, was €1,613 monthly in 2021, reaching the total figure of €115,709. As the basis was the average salary, there was no need to adjust for inflation in its calculations, ruled the court.

Besides awarding €115,709 in compensation to the victim, the court also ordered Plumpton to suffer the costs of the case and those of all ancillary acts.

Plumpton had contested the 2014 MEP election with the Nationalist Party and also served as its youth wing president at the time.