Residents win corpse-water suit
Published on: Thursday, October 01, 2015
Tawau: Some 337 residents of Taman Sri Titingan PPR flats who went to court after drinking "corpse water" from a reserve tank at the premises three years ago won their case, here, Wednesday.High Court Judicial Commissioner Azhahari Kamal Ramli ordered Sabah Valuer and Property Consultant (JPHS) – the second defendant – to pay damages of RM3,000 to each of the plaintiffs.JPHS was also ordered to pay five per cent interest from the date of the decision and the legal costs of RM50,000.
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The damages may be paid to the plaintiffs (residents) minus residents who withdrew (59), died (17) and tenants not in the list (47).The first defendant – Tawau Municipal Council (TMC) – was not required to pay any costs as the matter comes under the management agreement of the said residence.The residents had on Sept. 20, 2012 filed a RM100 million suit through counsel Chong Kian Ming and named TMC and the JPHS as the first and second defendants, respectively, for allowing a rotting body of a suspected illegal immigrant to pollute a reserve water tank of the housing flats.It was not clear how the victim ended up getting drowned in the water tank.
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Senior State Counsel Dayangku Fazidah Hatun Pg Bagul represented TMC while JPHS was represented by counsel Liew Hon Ming.The plaintiffs led by one Amiruddin Rasake had also sought the defendants to change all the pipes connected to the affected water tank and replace all the old tanks and to equip these with safety controls.
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The suit was said to be the first of its kind in the world brought to court and won. A similar case of drinking "corpse water" from a tank is pending before the courts in Las Vegas.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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