An Irish woman has come a step closer to receiving compensation for injuries she suffered while in the loadspace of an uninsured van that crashed ten years ago.
The High Court referred Elaine Farrell's claim to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) after the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) refused to pay compensation because she was in a part of the van not designed for carrying passengers.
The ECJ today issued an opinion that the MIBI, which operates the mandatory scheme for compensating those hurt in incidents involving uninsured vehicles, could not make such an exclusion.
Advocate General Christine Stix-Hackl found Article 1 of the Third Motor Insurance Directive did not exclude civil liability for injuries sustained by people travelling in parts of vehicles not designed to carry passengers from the scope of compulsory insurance.
Legal opinions from the Court of First Instance are followed in over 80 per cent of cases, and Ms Farrell's case is due to be subject of a final judgment early next year.
Ms Farrell was hurt when the van she was travelling crashed into a wall in 1996. When she discovered driver and owner Alan Whitty was not been insured, she referred her case to the MIBI.
When it refused to pay out, she went to the High Court claiming that MIBI was in breach of EU directives on compulsory insurance. The court sought an ECJ ruling in 2004 on whether the directive conferred individual rights before a national court.
Ms Stix-Hackl found that member states' provisions could not supervene the Third Directive, which provides that compulsory insurance is to "cover liability for personal injuries to all passengers, other than the driver, arising out of the use of a vehicle".
Therefore the matter can be dealt with national courts.
The Advocate General also noted that liability does not extend to covering passengers knowingly travelling in a stolen car.