High Court rejects RM1 million suit over girl’s school chair fall

THE Shah Alam High Court today dismissed a RM1 million negligence suit brought by a teenage girl and her father against three teachers, a headmaster, the Education Ministry and the Malaysian government over injuries she suffered after falling when a chair was pulled away as she was about to sit.

Judicial Commissioner Datuk Anita Harun ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that negligence or a failure to supervise by the teachers had caused the girl’s injuries.

The girl, who was 11 at the time, fractured her left femur after falling while attending a special education programme at a national school here on Oct 12, 2023.

Her father, Wan Amey Shahril Wan Ab Rahman, 39, filed the suit with his daughter, naming teachers Ilyana Sari Ridzuan, Suhaida Abdul Rahman and Aizam Naim Mohd Junid, headmaster Hamidah Shamsudin, the Education Ministry and the Malaysian government as the first to sixth defendants.

In her judgment, Anita said teachers had a duty to safeguard pupils’ safety but that this did not mean they could guarantee that pupils would never suffer injuries.

“However, that duty does not mean that teachers can guarantee that pupils will not be injured at all,” she said.

She said the plaintiffs still had to establish that the alleged negligence had caused the loss or injury claimed.

Anita said the girl’s allegation that the incident occurred because she was not adequately supervised when she fell had not been proven.

“The first plaintiff herself acknowledged that the incident happened quickly without any prior argument. The alleged failure of supervision and the cause of the fall could not be proven,” she said.

The judge said the chronology of events also raised inconsistencies over the timing of the incident.

Medical records placed the incident at about 10am, while the girl’s mother, Azera Yazid, 38, estimated that it occurred at about 10.40am and said she arrived at the school at about 11.20am.

The court also accepted evidence that the girl was given assistance, cried and subsequently moved towards her father on the lower floor of the school.

Anita said school procedures supported contacting the parents but did not require an ambulance to be called.

“Considering the assistance provided, the mother’s prompt arrival, the teachers’ observations and the time that had elapsed, arranging for the parents to collect her rather than emergency transportation was reasonable in itself,” she said.

She added that the girl should have remained resting and received appropriate assistance while moving towards her father.

Anita also found that no separate administrative failure that caused the alleged loss had been established.

“The necessary basis for determining liability also failed to be proven on the balance of probabilities,” she said.

The case had previously been reported by the media on Aug 4, 2024, when the girl, then aged 12, was said to have suffered for almost a year from complications arising from spinal injuries after falling when a schoolmate pulled away the chair she was about to sit on. - September 18, 2026