BEE V JENSON

[2007] EWCA Civ 923, Court of Appeal, Tuckey and Longmore LJJ and Sir Paul Kennedy, 13 September 2007

Tortfeasor’s liability – Damage to car – Hire of replacement car – Insurance

Mr Bee’s car had been hit by Mr Jenson and was being repaired. Mr Bee hired a replacement car and sought to recover the cost of the hire car from Mr Jenson. The cost of hire itself was not in issue, but Mr Jenson sought to deduct from that cost a discount obtained by Mr Bee’s insurers, who had arranged for the car hire, from the car hire company by way of commercial inducement. The question was whether Mr Bee could recover from Mr Jenson what was accepted to be a reasonable hire charge reasonably incurred, or whether Mr Jenson was entitled to submit that he was only liable for the true cost as it had been incurred by Mr Bee's insurers. The Court of Appeal held that deduction would not be permitted. Mr Bee could recover the reasonable hire of a replacement car even though the cost of that hire had been paid directly to the hire company by his insurers rather than by Mr Bee himself, but it followed that he would hold some of that sum in trust for the insurers. The fact that Mr Bee was insured was irrelevant in relation to what he could recover from the tortfeasor Mr Jenson.