JACOBS V MOTOR INSURERS BUREAU

[2010] EWCA Civ 1208, Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Laws, Lord Justice Moore-Bick and Lord Justice Rimer, 27 October 2010

Insurance (motor) - English domiciled claimant injured in accident in Spain - Driver uninsured - Action brought against Motor Insurers' Bureau - Whether damages to be assessed under Spanish law or English law - Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Information Centres and Compensation Body) Regulations 12 and 13

The claimant, Mr Jacobs, a UK resident, was injured in a road traffic accident in Spain in 2007. The injuries were inflicted by a car being driven by Mr Bartsch, a German national then resident in Spain. Mr Bartsch was uninsured. In December 2008 the claimant commenced proceedings against the MIB under Regulation 12 of the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Information Centres and Compensation Body) Regulations 2003, SI 2003 No 37. This provides that the MIB is to provide compensation as if it was the insurer and the accident had occurred in Great Britain. The claimant argued that Regulation 13 meant that the claim against the MIB was governed by English law, and that the measure of damages was thus the English measure. The MIB argued that the law applicable to the claim was to be determined by the Rome II Regulation, European Parliament and Council Regulation 864/2007/EC on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, and that under article 4 the applicable law was Spanish law. The Court of Appeal, overturning the first instance judgment of Owen J ruled that Regulation 12 required damages to be awarded in accordance with English law. The effect of the Regulations was that: an English victim of a road traffic accident could recover compensation from the MIB assessed by reference to English law, the payment to be funded by the MIB itself insofar as it exceeded the amount recoverable in accordance with the law of the country in which the accident occurred; and, conversely, where the law of the country in which the accident occurred provided more generous compensation, the injured person resident in the United Kingdom could recover from the MIB no more than the amount he would have been able to recover under English law.