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Allianz has hailed the Court of Appeal’s judgement in the credit hire case of England footballer Darren Bent as a significant victory for the general insurance industry.
The judgement included Mr Bent overturning a ruling preventing him claiming part of the cost of a credit hire car from the insurer.
Mr Bent had claimed £63,000 for the hire of an Aston Martin car from Accident Exchange after being involved in a road traffic accident in February 2007. In a series of court cases Allianz challenged the period, rate and need for the hire.
On 24 November the Court of Appeal ruled he should be reimbursed after previous judgements had meant he failed to recover over £20,000. Accident Exchange described the decision as a “victory for common sense”.
Despite the financial loss, Allianz highlighted that of three aspects under appeal, two were upheld.
Precedent
Martin Saunders, divisional claims manager (technical) at Allianz Insurance, commented: “Yesterday’s judgment has successfully achieved our aim of setting a precedent for future credit hire cases. The principles which have been laid out in this case have a significant impact on the future of credit hire cases and the result represents a positive outcome for the insurance industry.”
He continued: “It was maintained that when assessing the recoverable hire costs, the judge is entitled to look at how long vehicle repairs are likely to take, in order to determine the appropriate rate. This places a responsibility on the claimant to take reasonable steps to obtain from the repairer the timeframe expected to complete the repairs to the vehicle.
“In this case, the Court of Appeal agreed that Darren Bent was not entitled to claim in respect of a seven-day rate of hire but should be limited to a lower 28-day rate. It was also agreed that the judge was still entitled to arrive at a discount of 12% on the seven-day rate to reflect the cheaper longer term hire charge, amounting to over £7,000 in this particular case.”
Mr Saunders also noted that the Court of Appeal had affirmed that when assessing the basic hire rate recoverable, the court should do so on an objective basis and described this as a significant move away from the previous practice of claimants always recovering the top hire rate of the range.
He continued: “The principles established in this case therefore clarify and add to current case law to the benefit of current practitioners and insurers associated with the credit hire industry.
Common sense
“It is also pleasing that this judgment has reaffirmed the common-sense approach that the lower courts should take when assessing damages, that where it is reasonable to hire a vehicle on credit, the Court can and should take a broad view of the evidence available to assess the basic hire rate.”
Allianz described Mr Bent’s “only success” as being an increase in the assessment of his damages due to the specific nature of the evidence that developed over a number of years.
Mr Saunders concluded: “While this judgment means that an individual claimant has achieved an increase in damages, the impact of the court’s wide analysis is a significant victory for the general insurance industry and we are confident this will bring significant benefits to similar cases in the future.”
Medico Legal News Source: Insurance Age
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