PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal (CoA) recently ordered Sunway Putra Hotel to pay over RM350,000 in damages to the Chinese national parents of a young man who drowned at the hotel's swimming pool seven years ago.
The CoA's three-member bench, in setting aside the decisions of the Sessions and High Courts, held the Kuala Lumpur hotel accountable for the death of 22-year-old Qi Xiangqing and allowed the appeal filed by his parents, Qi Qiaoxian and Wang Bin.
Qi, who entered Malaysia as a tourist, checked into the hotel on February 14, 2017. He drowned in the swimming pool, which was accessible to all guests on that day.
In the written grounds of judgment published on the judiciary website on April 2, Justice Datuk Wong Kian Kheong stated that the Sessions and High Court had made legal and factual errors in dismissing the appeal of the couple.
Justice Wong, along with Justices Datuk Supang Lian and Datuk Azimah Omar, directed the hotel to pay the parents the quantum of damages as determined by the High Court judge, should the CoA reverse its decision.
The special damages included RM5,887 for traveling expenses, RM53,496 for funeral expenses, RM80 for the deceased's medical report, RM280,000 for the parents' loss of support from their son, a five percent per annum interest award, and RM25,000 for all court proceedings costs.
Justice Wong stated that it was undisputed that the couple were the parents of the deceased, as they had flown from China to claim the body from the local authorities and repatriated it to their home country.
On February 22 of that year, the parents were invited to dinner with the hotel's top management, including the general manager at that time, Michael Monks, to discuss the incident and proposed a settlement.
During the dinner, Monks offered compensation to the parents for the drowning of their son, on the condition that they would not disclose the incident to the press and social media.
Justice Wong noted that the bench construed Monk's proposal as an admission of the hotel's negligence and its role in the deceased's death.
He stated: "If they were not the parents, the hotel would not have invited them for dinner, and Monks' proposal would not have been made."
Justice Wong added that the hotel's breach of its duty of care had been proven by the parents on a balance of probabilities. He said there was an unwarranted deduction based on faulty judicial reasoning from admitted and established facts by the Sessions and High Courts.
He emphasised that considering the hotel's three-meter deep pool, any reasonable operator would have ensured the presence of a certified lifeguard when it was accessible to hotel guests, including the deceased.
He continued: "At the time of the incident, an employee of the hotel should have been monitoring the closed-circuit television (CCTV) system, which had already been installed at the pool. If otherwise, why would the hotel install the CCTV in the first place?"
"In this case, it is evident that the hotel's breach of duty caused the death of the deceased."
He further stated: "To the credit of the hotel's counsel, the hotel did not dispute the causation of the deceased's death. Nor did the hotel allege that the death of the deceased was too remote to be recoverable in law."