Mosquito coil plaintiff wins round one
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.