Expert warns of “raft” of legal challenges post-Delaney & Vnuk
The law on uninsured drivers is “in a state of shambles” and the government could face a “raft” of legal challenges.
Writing in NLJ this week, motor insurance specialist Nicholas Bevan warns that the recent case of Delaney has changed the game: “The government faces a stark dilemma: it must implement widespread reform or face a raft of expensive legal challenges from a profession that is gradually waking up to this new reality.”
In Delaney v Secretary of State for Transport [2015] EWCA Civ 172, the Court of Appeal unanimously held that the secretary of state failed to properly implement the Second European Directive on Motor Insurance (84/5/EEC). According to Bevan, the case will force the government to rewrite both Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) agreements that deal with uninsured and untraced drivers. The government already has to amend the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the European Communities (Rights Against Insurers) Regulations 2002 as the result of an earlier case, Damijan Vnuk v Zavarovalnica Triglav C-162/13 .
Bevan says : “The government can no longer assert with any credibility that its national law provision complies with EU law…Delaney places the writing on the wall in terms of state liability for any incompatible exclusions and restrictions of insurer or MIB liability, back to 1996.”
Sean Delaney suffered serious injuries in a crash caused by the driver of the car in which he was a passenger. A large quantity of cannabis was found in their possession. The MIB was able to avoid liability under the Uninsured Drivers Agreement 1999, because the passenger knew the vehicle was being used in the furtherance of crime.
