When is an Insured Vehicle an Uninsured Vehicle?
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| Author | James Marson,Katy Ferris |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12762 |
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Modern Law Review
DOI:10.1111/1468-2230.12762
When is an Insured Vehicle an Uninsured Vehicle?
James Marson∗and Katy Ferris†
In Colley vMotor Insurers’ Bureauthe Motor Insurers’ Bureau appealled against liability to satisfy
a claim for damages for injuries suered by a passenger in a motor vehicle accident. The driver
was uninsured,but at the time of the accident the vehicle in which the victim was travelling
was subject to a policy of motor insurance.By operation of national law, and in breach of the
Motor Vehicle Insurance Directive (MVID), the insurer was allowed to recant the policy and
leave the passengera victimofan, ostensibly, uninsuredvehicle. This noteexplains whythe
decision of the Court of Appeal was fundamentally awed,how the Court continues to apply
EU law incorrectly,and broader concerns the case presents for remaining EU law claims in the
appeal courts. This is particularly the case for retained EU laws and the cases remaining to be
heard under the MVID’s application in national courts.
THE NATIONAL LAW ANDEULAW: ESTABLISHINGTHERULES IN
OPERATION
The national law gover ning motor vehicle insurance and use is the Road Trac
Act 1988(RTA88) and it, amongotherobligations, requires theownersofve-
hicles to have,as a minimum, third party (liability) motor insurance for vehicles
used on a road or other public place.1Such policies of motor vehicle insurance
must be issued by a provider which is a member of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau
(MIB).
The national laws pertinent to this case are sections 151 and 152 of the
RTA88.2Section 151 readsthatan insurer,subject to conditions and exceptions,
is under a duty to satisfy a judgment where a person, which it has not insured
to drive the vehicle at fault,causes injury to a third-party,or damage to their
property. Section 151(2)(b) continues that if the liability is such that it would
be covered had the policy insured all persons, and judgment is granted against
a person not insured under the policy, the insurer must satisfy the claim.Here
the insurer becomes a statutory insurer (known as an RTA insurer).The insurer
is entitled to seek recovery of any such payment against the driver at fault,but
it must satisfy the claim insofar as the activity of the driver is one which is
covered by the policy.Thus, and for a practical example, a father insures a car
for social and domestic purposes and his son, not identied on the insurance
∗Sheeld Hallam University
†The University of Nottingham. The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their helpful
comments and suggestions. Errors and omissions remain our own.
1RTA88,s143.
2All sections noted refer to the RTA88 unless otherwise stated.
© 2022TheAuthors. The Modern Law Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Modern Law Review Limited.
(2023) 86(2) MLR 551–563
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits
use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited,the use is non-commercial and no modications or
adaptations are made.
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