A teenage girl who was injured after a schoolmate allegedly pulled away a chair as she was about to sit has lost a RM1 million negligence suit against three teachers, a headmistress, the Education Ministry and the government.
The 14-year-old filed the suit with her father, Wan Amey Shahril Wan Ab Rahman, 39, as the first and second plaintiffs.
They named teachers Ilyana Sari Ridzuan, Suhaida Abdul Rahman and Aizam Naim Mohd Junid, headmistress Hamidah Shamsudin, the Education Ministry and the government as defendants.
The plaintiffs alleged that negligence by the defendants resulted in the girl’s injuries.
In dismissing the suit, Judicial Commissioner Datuk Anita Harun said the girl was 11 when she fell and fractured her left femur while attending a special education programme at a national school on Oct 12, 2023.
She said teachers had a duty to ensure students’ safety under the law, but that duty did not mean they could guarantee students would never be injured.
The plaintiffs still had to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that negligence by the teachers caused the loss or injury, she said.
Anita said the girl’s claim that the incident occurred because of inadequate supervision had not been proven.
The girl herself acknowledged that the incident happened quickly and without any prior argument, making the alleged lack of supervision and cause of the fall difficult to establish, she said.
The court also considered discrepancies over the timing of the incident.
Medical records placed the incident at about 10am, while the girl’s mother, Azera Yazid, 38, estimated that it happened at around 10.40am and said she arrived at the school at about 11.20am.
The judge said the court accepted evidence that the girl received assistance, cried and then moved towards her father on the lower floor of the school building.
She said school procedures supported contacting the parents but did not require an ambulance to be called.
Given the assistance provided, the mother’s prompt arrival, the teachers’ observations and the passage of time, Anita said it was reasonable in the circumstances for the parents to collect the girl instead of arranging emergency transportation.
She added that the girl should have remained resting and received appropriate assistance when moving towards her father.
Anita also said no separate administrative failure that caused the girl’s injuries could be established, while the necessary basis for determining liability had not been proven on the balance of probabilities.
“The plaintiffs’ action against all the defendants is dismissed,” she said.
Senior federal counsel Afiq Nazrin Zaharinan represented all the defendants, while lawyer Soffian Azmir represented the two plaintiffs.
The case had previously been reported in August 2024, when the girl, then 12, was said to have suffered complications for almost a year following a spinal injury after falling when a schoolmate pulled away the chair she was about to sit on.
