NTUC Income, expressing relief with the closure of teacher Jonathan Lock's drawn-out court saga, on Wednesday offered to waive a further $15,000 of the $45,000 he is liable to pay the insurer.

This brings to $40,000 it has offered to help Mr Lock settle his costly legal tangle that started from a simple accident case.

Income's offer came hours after the Appeals court vindicated Mr Lock and ordered all the parties involved to bear their own costs, and a week after the primary school teacher turned down its earlier offer to give him a goodwill payment of $25,000.

Mr Tan had said then it was the company's way of helping someone who had "found himself caught in the middle of a protracted and unnecessary legal process". But a condition attached to Income's offer was that Mr Lock drop his case that was pending in the Appeals Court.

Mr Lock rejected it. Instead, he decided to let the Appeals Court decide whether an earlier court decision which made him ultimately liable for Income's legal bills still held. And he was vindicated on Wednesday.

Reacting to the Appeals Court's ruling, Income's Chief Executive, Mr Tan Suee Chieh, said in a statement on Wednesday: "Despite the Court of Appeal ruling against NTUC Income this morning, we are pleased and relieved with the closure of this unfortunate saga, which has gone on too far and for too long, without serving the interests of our customer, Jonathan Lock nor NTUC Income.

"Today's ruling is a positive outcome for Jonathan Lock and his family."

He added: "We deeply regret the distress which Jonathan and Shane Lock have had to endure. For these reasons, we had previously offered $25,000 to help them with their legal bills. To assist Jonathan Lock with his remaining financial obligations, we will increase our contribution by another $15,000, making it a total of $40,000.

"NTUC Income places people above process, and we seek to conduct our business with fairness and for the benefit of the people who are most important to us, namely our customers. Our overriding objective is to protect the interests of our customers, individually and as a whole. We believe our recent actions have been consistent with these principles."

Income had earlier also asked its lawyers to arrange for the lifting of the freeze on the items in Mr Lock's flat which were to to have been seized to pay for the costs he owed.

The case began with a hearing in the Primary Dispute Resolution Centre in March last year. It was to settle the November 2004 accident between Mr Lock's motorcycle and a car driven by Ms Jessiline Goh.

Mr Lock got $188 and Ms Goh was asked to pay $1,200 in costs. After getting a cheque for that amount, he thought the matter closed.

But the lawyer then representing him extracted a court order and took out a writ of seizure against Ms Goh to enforce payment of the $1,200.

This move set in motion a series of events that led to High Court judge Lai Siu Chiu agreeing, in May, with the NTUC's appeal that Mr Lock should be liable for the total costs of the case.

The $65,000 bill was cut to $45,000 after a review.