Where Reported

2004 S.L.T. 787; 2004 G.W.D. 24-526

Case Digest

Subject: Insurance

Keywords: Compensation; Damages; Knowledge; Motor Insurers Bureau; Motor vehicle offences; Scotland

Summary: motor insurance; Motor Insurers Bureau; motor vehicle offences; damages action by pillion passenger against uninsured driver; whether Bureau liable; Scotland

Abstract: M sought damages from P, a driver, for injuries sustained in an accident. At the time of the accident, M, who had been riding pillion, was 21 years old and P was aged 19. P was uninsured and the action was intimated to B, the Motor Insurers' Bureau. M sought declarator that B were liable to satisfy any decree pronounced against P. At preliminary proof, M denied B's averments that they were not liable because he knew P did not hold a licence or insurance, submitting inter alia that he had only known P for two to three years prior to the accident, having met at a mountain bike shop where P worked, and further, that the onus of proof lay on B.

Held, granting absolvitor, that B had established that M knew, at the time of the accident, that P was not insured to ride his motorbike. P's account of two foolish young boys, close friends, who between them had determined a stupid and risky course of action, was entirely credible. M's explanation was sparse and lacking in content; there was internal inconsistency between the picture he sought to present of socialising only with P by going out on mountain bike rides with a large group of people, and that of moving in to live with him for some four to five months, the obvious inference from which was that they had become close friends.

Judge: Lady Smith

Counsel: For M: Christine. For P: Thomson

Solicitor: For M: Lawford Kidd. For P: Simpson & Marwick WS