The National Industrial Court, Benin Division, has slammed the sum of five million naira on a Chinese based tiles company, Time Ceramics LTD, for abandoning one of their cooks who sustained 25 degree burns while on duty in 2018.
Presiding Judge, Hon. Justice Abiola Adewemimo, held that the victim, Bukola Seidic, who was 25 years old as at the time, was abandoned by the company, having slipped in the kitchen, while the soup she was carrying poured on her and she sustained life-threatening injuries as a result of the slippery tiles fixed in the kitchen.
The court observed that though the company took her to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), the insisted that the victim be discharged few days later when the hospital requested for the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira for surgery.
Hon. Justice Adewemimo agreed with the victim’s evidence and her Counsel’s submission that the company took her to their clinic where she was poorly treated only to later abandon her, which amounts to negligence of duty of care.
The court noted that several letters written to the company by the victim’s counsel, Timothy Obasuyi and a civil society group, Freedom Ambassadors Organization, led by Comrade Curtis Ogbebor were never responded to by the company.
The court believed the victim’s testimony that there was no safety wares and rejected evidence of the company’s health Officer who testified that the victim did not wear safety boot and gloves while on duty hence, she sustained injuries, even as Justice Adewemimo noted that the health Officer refused to call the workers who told him that she was not wearing safety wares to give evidence.
The Court, consequently, awarded the sum of five million naira as compensation and another sum of five million naira as damages for the victim’s destabilization, shock, disfigurement, frustration and pains suffered by the victim.
The Court also awarded the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira against the company, adding that the monies must be paid within thirty days of the judgement and that the the sum will attract interest rates upon failure to do so before the thirty days.
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