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To the uninitiated , the approach of the Learned Chief Justice
may, at first blush, appear to be somewhat annual. However, there
is support for his view in the authority he cites. 1 must also
record that a first reaction to the quantum of damages awarded is that
it is clearly generous. The following considerations do, however,
have to be taken into account:
1.
Plaintiff was at the time the seduction took
place, a very young girl of 16 or at the most
17 years of age.
2.
She was to the Defendant's knowledge an orphan
and totally destitute.
3.
By taking her into his home at this youthful
age he, in a sense, assumed a kind of
trusteeship over her.
4.
He is a mature man whose judgment and sense of
responsibility should have been well developed.
5.
He acted throughout in a callous, inconsiderate
manner. Moreover he persisted, right up to the
time that he appeared in this court, in
maintaining an arrogant attitude totally devoid
of compassion or concern.
In Defendant's favour one must take into account the fact that
he did not persist in his seduction of the Plaintiff and that the
pregnancy was the consequence of a single series of aberrations during
the one night.
Weighing up these factors, I have come to the conclusion that
whilst the award is clearly generous and may well have been more than
I would have awarded, the disparity is not such that 1 deem it
appropriate for this court to interfere.
I would accordingly dismiss the appeal with costs. I order
that such costs are to go into the revenue of the Chief Legal Officer
under the provisions of Section 10(5) of the Legal Aid Act 1978
(Act No. 19 of 1978).
10/....
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