Vehicles belonging to the RAF will go under the hammer after the fund failed to pay medical bills to the tune of R3.5m, racked up by a NY dancer injured in a crash in SA 17 years ago.
|||Cape Town - Twelve vehicles belonging to the Road Accident Fund will go under the hammer after the fund failed to pay medical bills to the tune of R3.5 million, racked up by a New York dancer injured in a collision in South Africa 17 years ago.
But the sale of the fund’s Cape Town vehicles will not cover the debt, and the medical bills are still pouring in.
Alan Onickel, who has starred in major Broadway productions across the globe, was injured in April 1999 while on a dance and teaching assignment in South Africa.
He was a passenger in a vehicle that collided with a microbus and suffered severe head and orthopaedic injuries, which led to neuro-cognitive and behavioural deficits.
These affected his dancing career, Onickel said in court papers when he lodged a third-party claim against the fund and the driver of the vehicle.
Five years later, the High Court in Johannesburg awarded him 100 percent of his damages. But instead of handing over a lump sum, in 2006 the RAF agreed to pay all Onickel’s accident-related medical expenses as they arose. This agreement was made an order of court.
Despite Onickel submitting regular medical claims to the RAF from New York, they were either ignored or met with a refusal to pay, his attorneys at Malcolm Lyons and Brivik Inc told Weekend Argus.
He returned to court in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014. Once the RAF even flew Onickel to South Africa to undergo medical examinations, said attorney Tzvi Brivik.
“It is 12 years since the RAF gave an undertaking to pay for our client’s medical costs, and the continuous battles and expense he has had to endure to obtain his refunds have made his life more of a misery than it already is.
“In my view, the continuous failure of the RAF to honour its undertaking to pay Onickel’s medical and hospital expenses, and its treatment of Onickel, amounts to an abuse of the court process,” he said.
In February, the High Court ordered the RAF to reimburse Onickel R3.5m in medical expenses, as well as costs, but the bill still wasn’t paid, so Onickel’s attorneys secured a warrant of execution against the fund, allowing the sheriff of the High Court to attach the vehicles. Last month the sheriff attached three Nissan Tidas, two Toyota Raiders, two Isuzu bakkies, three Nissan Almeras and two Ford Fiestas at the RAF’s offices in Thibault Square, worth a total of R2.1m, leaving R1.4m outstanding.
Attorney Malcolm Lyons said further litigation against the fund was planned.
fatima.schroeder@inl.co.za
Weekend Argus