Hawkers spend long hours behind the counter cooking away and dealing with customers. It is inevitable that they may sometimes mess up orders.
However, back in Feb 2020, when a hawker at Whampoa Makan Place, Ms Zhou, accidentally served a customer a bowl of porridge with an uncooked egg, the customer threw the hot porridge at her.
She sustained first and second-degree burns and was conveyed to the hospital for treatment.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
Later, her son took the customer, 38-year-old Charles Law Chang Teck, to court. Eventually, Ms Zhou won S$16,000 in compensation from him.
On 1 Feb 2020, Law was patronising Ms Zhou’s stall at Whampoa Makan Place to purchase a bowl of porridge for his child.
When he noticed that the egg in the porridge was uncooked, he argued with Ms Zhou.
In a fit of anger, he untied the takeaway plastic bag, removed the container lid, and threw the whole container of piping hot porridge at her.
Ms Zhou suffered first and second-degree burns on her right upper limb, upper chest, and face.
Last month, Law was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail for voluntarily causing hurt by using a heated substance.
Upset over his mother’s injuries, Ms Zhou’s son decided to sue Law to seek justice for her.
She was represented by Mr Tan and Mr Yang from Invictus Law Corporation.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
The lawyers had reportedly felt unjust for Ms Zhou and decided to take on her case pro bono.
According to Shin Min Daily News, they eventually won S$16,000 in compensation. This is inclusive of S$2,000 for Ms Zhou’s medical treatment and S$3,600 for the 2 weeks she had to stop work.
Ms Zhou shared that the hospital had initially given her one week of medical leave.
However, because she had to keep her wounds dry, the polyclinic doctor gave her another two weeks of medical leave.
Because she was mainly in charge of cooking the porridge, the stall had to shutter up temporarily, amounting to three weeks’ worth of lost income.
We’re glad that Ms Zhou has recovered well from her injuries. It’s sad that she had to endure such pain and hurt due to one man’s fury.
Although the past can’t be undone, we hope the compensation she receives can help her move forward and put this incident behind her.
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News and Google Maps.
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