Mattocks v Mann
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 11 June 1992 |
| Date | 11 June 1992 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
Court of Appeal
Before Lord Justice Nourse, Lord Justice Stocker and Lord Justice Beldam
Damages - measure - car hire costs
The measure of damages awarded to a plaintiff who was obliged to incur hire charges following a road traffic accident could include (i) the cost of hire of a car that was larger than the plaintiff's own and (ii) the cost of hire after completion of repairs pending receipt by the plaintiff from the defendant's insurers of funds to meet the repairer's bill.
The Court of Appeal so held in allowing an appeal by the plaintiff, Wendy Ann Mattocks, from the judgment of Master Miller on March 28, 1991 that assessed the measure of damages payable to her by the defendant, Mrs J C Mann. The court ordered the amount in respect of the hire charges to be increased from £2,550 to £4,255.
Mr Simon Browne for the plaintiff; Mr Guy Anthony for the defendant.
LORD JUSTICE BELDAM said that the plaintiff's claim arose from the damage to her Peugeot 1.6 GTi two-door motor car caused by the admitted negligence of the defendant. The only issue concerned the amount of damages.
The plaintiff's appeal was based on the refusal of Master Miller to award her the full cost of the hire of an alternative vehicle up to the time she recovered her repaired Peugeot.
At the time of the accident the plaintiff had a young child and was expecting another. The use of a car was necessary for her. For some 20 weeks she hired a four-door Ford Sierra 1.6L at the rate of £130 a week. Thereafter, while her own car was still being repaired, she changed the Sierra for a smaller car, a Nissan Micra, at a cost of £85 per week.
At the hearing, the master accepted the defendant's argument that because the plaintiff had made do with a smaller two-door car for the latter period, it was unreasonable of her not to have hired a car of that type over the whole period.
The master had erred. The question he had to ask himself was whether the plaintiff had acted unreasonably in hiring the Sierra at £130 a week.
For the defendant, it was argued that the car that the plaintiff owned was a two-door hatchback; that the Sierra gave her the advantage of four doors; that she could have made do with a two-door vehicle; and that she had acted unreasonably in going for the Sierra. That, it was said, accorded with the principle that the plaintiff was entitled to be put into the position that she would have been in had the accident not occurred.
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