KUALA LUMPUR: All he wanted was an apology.
This was what lawyer Datuk Dr S. Arunan, who represented Placid P. Rodriguez, said his client had asked.
Arunan was speaking to reporters outside the court after winning a suit against national taekwondo athlete Nur Dhia Liyana Shaharuddin over allegations of assaulting Rodriguez at an LRT station two years ago.
Sessions Court judge Nur Lailatul Zuraida Harron@Harun in allowing the suit filed by the 71-year-old former safety officer, who was partially deaf and blind, ordered the defendant (Nur Dhia) to pay RM88 in special damages, RM1,000 in general damages and RM1,000 in legal costs to Rodriguez.
The judge also ordered Nur Dhia, 25, to make a written unequivocal apology to Rodriguez to be published in the local newspapers within a month.
Arunan told reporters after the proceedings in chambers that the suit did not have to come this far if the defendant had apologised earlier.
“My client just wanted to clear his name as the woman filed a police report against him claiming she was assaulted when it was actually the other way around.
“But there was a CCTV (close circuit television) camera and the footage showed the woman had attacked my client,” he said.
Arunan added that the suit was not about the money, but about justice for Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, who was present during the proceedings, was accompanied by his wife and brother.
In the statement of claim, Rodriguez said on July 6, 2017, while he was on his way back from work, he boarded the LRT train to Putra Heights.
He claimed that upon reaching the station, he had allowed other passengers to go out first to avoid being pushed.
He said as he was stepping out of the train to the platform, the defendant pushed him and then he heard the woman scolding and shouting at him.
Rodriguez, who was wearing a hearing aid at the time, said he was later kicked by the defendant three times on the left and right side of his body.
He said that despite him begging the woman to stop assaulting him, she continued and ignored his plea.
He also claimed the incident was captured clearly on the CCTV at the Putra Heights LRT station.
The plaintiff had sought a written unconditional, unqualified and unreserved apology by the defendant as well as general, aggravated and exemplary damages, RM88.78 in special damages, and other reliefs deemed fit by the court.