The Supreme Court in Kigali has summoned Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) in a nine-year-old case in which their client seeks medications after a work accident and compensations for the negligence of the social security board.
The highest court in the land had ordered RSSB in 2019 to pay Rw12 million to the former cleaner at Trustco Rwanda Ltd in compensations for the failure of RSSB to take care of the work accident their client got in 2012.
The court had also ordered RSSB to designate over Rwf29000 on a monthly basis for the accident victim and handle all his medication bills related to the 2012 work accident.
However, since the court’s ruling in August 2019, RSSB never attempted to execute the court’s orders, compelling the claimant to re-sue the board in the same court that had ordered the compensations.
The hearing in which RSSB Chief Executive Officer was summoned was supposed to take place today 11 May 2021 at the Supreme Court in Kigali but the jury was not full and was postponed to a date yet to be communicated.
In November 2012, the cleaner was working when he fell through the window from an upper floor at a public office where his bosses had stationed him and sustained serious injuries, especially on the head and leg.
His employer Trustco Rwanda Ltd took the then 22-year old young man to King Faisal Hospital where he got medication as the employer processed handing over the accident case to RSSB.
King Faisal Hospital’s medical report rated the victim’s disability at 45 percent while RSSB’s consultant medic determined that the disability caused by the accident was at 10 percent.
RSSB refused to compensate their client which compelled the now father of two to drag them to court in 2013 at Nyarugenge Intermediate Court where RSSB was defeated.
RSSB appealed the court’s decision to High Court, arguing that the victim sustained minor disabilities of 10 percent that do not need RSSB’s involvement but the board lost the case for the second time.
The law determining the jurisdiction of courts prohibited appeals after defeat in two lower courts and RSSB submitted their case to the Ombudsman who ordered the supreme Court to review it on grounds of injustices.
The Supreme Court first ordered the health ministry to commission medical experts to determine the level of the disability the victim sustained from the accident.
The expert’s report indicated that the victim’s mental disability was at 80 percent and physical disabilities on the jaw, teeth and left leg at 20 percent.
The Supreme Court’s ruling ordered RSSB to cater for the victim’s medication especially the mental problems, the jaw, the teeth and the leg, and all other diseases that could come as a result of the accident.
The court also ordered RSSB to pay Rwf12 million to the victim and monthly payments of Rwf29,758 for the rest of the victim’s life which RSSB never executed, prompting the court to summon them 8 April 2021.
Source: Kigali Law Tidings
Oky