Direct actions by third party victims

The EC’s Fifth Motor Insurance Directive, European Parliament and Council Directive 2005/14/EC, conferred upon the victm of a negligent driver the right to bring an action against the driver’s insurers without having to bring an action against the driver himself. The Directive was, however, somewhat opaque on the jurisdictional question of where the action is to be brought. The compromise solution adopted by the Directive is that the victim is entitled to make a claim against the insurers’ appointed representative for the member state in which the victim is domiciled, and if that claim is rejected the victim may then press his claim against the Motor Insurers Bureau established for his territory. The Directive makes no provision for legal proceedings against the insurers. In FBIO Shadverzekerigen NV v Odenbreit Case C–463/06, a decision of the European Court of Justice on 13 December 2007, it has been confirmed that the victim is entitled to sue the insurers in the member state of the victim’s own domicile, an assumption which appears in the recitals to Directive 2005/14/EC but not in its substantive provisions.