Mosquito coil plaintiff wins round one
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The South Jakarta District Court decided on Thursday to continue hearing a civil action against PT Coca-Cola Indonesia brought by Japanese citizen Tasaku Masaharu for allegedly circulating a bottled drink that contained a piece of mosquito coil.
The court rejected the company's argument that the case should have been brought before the relevant administrative court on the grounds that the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), which had originally been named as a defendant, was not actually directly connected with the case. Under Law No. 5/1986 on the administrative court system, one of the defendants must be a state agency or institution before an administrative court can accept a case.
In delivering the court's decision on the question of jurisdiction, presiding judge Soedarto said that the case came within the jurisdiction of the district court as Masaharu had selected the Farida Law Office in Kuningan, which is located in the same municipality as the court, as his place of legal domicile for the purposes of the suit.
Article 24 of the Civil Code provides that a party to a civil action may designate a place other than where he lives as his place of domicile for the purposes of the proceedings.
Coca-Cola's lawyers had previously argued that the lawsuit should have been brought before the court in Japan, of which country Masaharu is a citizen.
Lawyer Mohammad Sadly Hasibuan, who is representing Coca-Cola, said that the company was considering appealing the court's preliminary ruling.
Masaharu is suing PT Coca-Cola Indonesia, its bottling arm, PT Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia (BPOM), and the vendor who sold him a 193-milliliter bottle of Coke that Masaharu claims contained a piece of mosquito coil.
He says he felt a burning sensation in his throat after consuming two-fifths of the bottle's contents in October last year, and to have been forced to have his stomach pumped. He also says that he suffered hair loss as a result of the incident.
PT Coca-Cola Indonesia and PT Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia have denied the allegations and said that the medical data received from the doctor who examined Masaharu after the incident indicated that he was in good health.
The two companies said that they had offered Masaharu two crates of Coca-Cola, and to pay all his hospital bills, but the plaintiff turned this down.
Masaharu has demanded that PT Coca-Cola Indonesia run a public apology to all its customers, including himself, in 10 national newspapers, 10 national magazines, 10 television stations, 10 radio stations and 10 foreign-language dailies.
He has also demanded that the company pay him damages of US$1,473,447 for material losses and $6 million for non-material losses.
The hearing was adjourned for three weeks until Sept. 9.