JACOBS V MOTOR INSURERS BUREAU

[2010] EWHC 231 (QB), Queen's Bench Division, Mr Justice Owen, 16 February 2010

Insurance (motor) - English domiciled claimant injured in accident in Spain - Driver uninsured - Action brought against Motor Insurers Bureau -Whether damages to be assessed under Spanish law or English law - Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Information Centres and Compensation Body), Regulation 13 - Rome II Regulation, Regulation 4

The claimant, Mr Jacobs, a UK resident, was injured in a road traffic accident in Spain in 2007. The injuries were inflicted by a car being driven by Mr Bartsch, a German national then resident in Spain. Mr Bartsch was uninsured. In December 2008 the claimant commenced proceedings against the MIB under Regulation 13 of the Motor Vehicles (Compulsory Insurance) (Information Centre and Compensation Body) Regulations 2003, SI 2003 No 37. This provides that the MIB is to provide compensation as if it was the insurer and the accident had occurred in Great Britain. The claimant argued that Regulation 13 meant that the claim against the MIB was governed by English law, and that the measure of damages was thus the English measure. The MIB argued that the law applicable to the claim was to be determined by the Rome II Regulation, European Parliament and Council Regulation 864/2007/EC on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations, and that under article 4 the applicable law was Spanish law. Owen J ruled that: (1) the Rome II Regulation applied, and that the 2003 Regulations did not provide for a free-standing choice of law rule in favour of English law; and (2) under the Rome Convention, article 4, the applicable law was Spanish law as that was where the accident occurred.