Taxi driver’s 50% liability removed as passengers’ damages are doubled

Jamaica’s Court of Appeal has removed the 50% share of liability placed on taxi driver Oneil Carter after a collision with a front-end loader in Saint Ann. In its 23 October 2026 judgment, the court also doubled the general damages awarded to two injured passengers: Dawnalee Harrison’s award rose from J$1 million to J$2 million, and Veronica Kelly’s from J$800,000 to J$1.6 million. The appeal succeeded only in part.

The litigation arose from a 2012 collision on the Colgate Main Road. The taxi entered a blind corner while the front-end loader, operated by Hopeton Stone, was crossing its path. Harrison and Kelly were the only trial witnesses. Their accounts described a taxi travelling at a moderate speed and braking or slowing when the obstruction appeared. The trial judge had nevertheless divided responsibility equally between Carter and Stone.

The appeal court said drivers must take reasonable care against foreseeable dangers, adapting their driving to the road and circumstances. A blind corner did not create a separate duty to prevent every imaginable accident, but an obstruction there could still be foreseeable. The decisive problem was proof: the trial judge had accepted the passengers as truthful yet lacked evidence supporting the finding of excessive speed or a failure to react. The collision itself did not fill that gap. On the evidence in this case, the court placed responsibility for the accident entirely on Stone.

The compensation findings also required correction. For Harrison, the court found that the comparison used by the trial judge did not adequately account for her injuries and the initial shock and pain. Kelly’s assessment gave insufficient weight to the wider injuries and suffering beyond her fractured toe. The court considered both awards disproportionate. Its replacement figures concern these claimants and this evidence, rather than a fixed price for similar injuries.

The final order makes Stone and the loader’s owner, Clive Morgan, jointly and severally liable to the two women, with 3% annual interest and trial costs as ordered. The reasons specify interest from service of the claims to the judgment in the court below. The separate attempt to impose liability on Morgan’s Trucking Company Limited failed: an unchallenged response identifying Clive Morgan as the owner was before the trial judge. All three appellants received their appeal costs against Stone and Morgan, to be agreed or taxed.

Carter’s success on responsibility for the collision did not revive his own dismissed case. The court upheld the orders in the separate claim brought by passenger Trevor South, including dismissal of Carter’s defence and ancillary claim. Carter had not attended trial or obtained permission to rely on his witness statement in his absence. The court rejected his challenge to that course, illustrating why winning a liability argument does not necessarily reverse every procedural order in consolidated litigation.

Historical October 2026 judgment added to the archive on 5 November. The accident occurred in 2012. This report does not certify the current consolidated road-traffic legislation, a general compensation tariff or later appeal/correction status.