Mosquito coil plaintiff wins round one<\/p>\n
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
The South Jakarta District Court decided on Thursday to continue
\nhearing a civil action against PT Coca-Cola Indonesia brought by
\nJapanese citizen Tasaku Masaharu for allegedly circulating a
\nbottled drink that contained a piece of mosquito coil.<\/p>\n
The court rejected the company's argument that the case should
\nhave been brought before the relevant administrative court on the
\ngrounds that the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), which
\nhad originally been named as a defendant, was not actually
\ndirectly connected with the case. Under Law No. 5\/1986 on the
\nadministrative court system, one of the defendants must be a
\nstate agency or institution before an administrative court can
\naccept a case.<\/p>\n
In delivering the court's decision on the question of
\njurisdiction, presiding judge Soedarto said that the case came
\nwithin the jurisdiction of the district court as Masaharu had
\nselected the Farida Law Office in Kuningan, which is located in
\nthe same municipality as the court, as his place of legal
\ndomicile for the purposes of the suit.<\/p>\n
Article 24 of the Civil Code provides that a party to a civil
\naction may designate a place other than where he lives as his
\nplace of domicile for the purposes of the proceedings.<\/p>\n
Coca-Cola's lawyers had previously argued that the lawsuit
\nshould have been brought before the court in Japan, of which
\ncountry Masaharu is a citizen.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Mohammad Sadly Hasibuan, who is representing Coca-Cola,
\nsaid that the company was considering appealing the court's
\npreliminary ruling.<\/p>\n
Masaharu is suing PT Coca-Cola Indonesia, its bottling arm, PT
\nCoca-Cola Bottling Indonesia (BPOM), and the vendor who sold him
\na 193-milliliter bottle of Coke that Masaharu claims contained a
\npiece of mosquito coil.<\/p>\n
He says he felt a burning sensation in his throat after
\nconsuming two-fifths of the bottle's contents in October last
\nyear, and to have been forced to have his stomach pumped. He also
\nsays that he suffered hair loss as a result of the incident.<\/p>\n
PT Coca-Cola Indonesia and PT Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia
\nhave denied the allegations and said that the medical data
\nreceived from the doctor who examined Masaharu after the incident
\nindicated that he was in good health.<\/p>\n
The two companies said that they had offered Masaharu two
\ncrates of Coca-Cola, and to pay all his hospital bills, but the
\nplaintiff turned this down.<\/p>\n
Masaharu has demanded that PT Coca-Cola Indonesia run a public
\napology to all its customers, including himself, in 10 national
\nnewspapers, 10 national magazines, 10 television stations, 10
\nradio stations and 10 foreign-language dailies.<\/p>\n
He has also demanded that the company pay him damages of
\nUS$1,473,447 for material losses and $6 million for non-material
\nlosses.<\/p>\n
The hearing was adjourned for three weeks until Sept. 9.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/mosquito-coil-plaintiff-wins-round-one-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }