Accidents caused by uninsured drivers - elsewhere in the EU

Bloy v Motor Insurers' Bureau [2013] EWCA Civ 1543 (29 November 2013) is an eye-opening case for one who hasn't paid much attention to insurance law since finishing the Commercial Law paper in the Law Society's Part II examination - and that, if you know about these things, will give you an idea about how long ago it was. The claimants (Mrs Bloy was the injured party's mother and litigation friend, the other claimant her infant son) sued for damages for extensive personal injuries that occurred in a car accident in Lithuania in 2007. The other driver was a local, and was convicted of driving while under the influence of alcohol, or whatever words Lithuanian law uses ('influence' suggests something subtle and external, or involuntary, doesn't it? Shall we just say 'drunk'?). She was also uninsured. The claimants were both British citizens.

Under the motor insurance directives (details of which you can find in the judgment, if you feel the need) the MIB is responsible not only for picking up the pieces left when uninsured drivers in the UK hurt people, but also when British citizens are injured by uninsured drivers in other EU countries. That's logical, although I suppose not inevitable: the Directives could have done the opposite, making the Lithuanian MIB (the judgment tells us that there is one) responsible. But, consistent with other consumer-orientated legislation I suppose, the Directives chose to make the injured party's home MIB the responsible one.

The question in this case was, whose law applies? The Directives set minimum levels for compensation, which the (UK) MIB comfortably, and generously, exceeds: its Lithuanian oppo chooses not to. The MIB wanted the amount of compensation to be governed by Lithuanian law. The matter was dealt with, one might think conclusively, in the judgment of Moore-Bick LJ in Jacobs v Motor Insurers' Bureau [2010] EWCA Civ. 1208, [2011] 1 WLR 2609 - but the MIB sought to distinguish the present case from that judgment.

To cut quite a long story short, they received short shrift from the Court of Appeal, and instinctively I feel that must be the right answer. The compensation payable to the injured party should surely be at a level appropriate for his home country, not at the lower level that might apply in the country where the accident occurred.