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Successful defence for an insurer client against a case involving a claim for a credit hire vehicle following a road traffic accident.
24 May 2021
Case Study
At the time of instruction, judgment in default had already been entered, and whilst liability for the accident had already been admitted, there was a dispute over whether the hire agreement was enforceable against the defendant’s insurer.
Following detailed analysis, Adam Peers, who led on the case, identified that the hire agreement had not been signed by the claimant until 22 days after the hire period had ended and succeeded in having the judgment set aside.
Case Study
Upon cross-examination, the claimant appeared oblivious as to how much the repairs to his car and the charges for the hire car would be at the time of instructing his solicitor. He also confirmed that he had not signed the hire agreement until after the hire had ended.
Verbal evidence also revealed that the claimant was told by his solicitor that he would not have to pay for the hire car as the defendant’s insurers would cover the costs.
The District Judge commented that “even by the time of the final hearing, the claimant seemed to have a lack of understanding as to how much the claim that was being made was valued at or how it was made up”.
Judgment was reserved and handed down several weeks later in the defendant’s favour, with the District Judge ruling that the hire was not enforceable.
The claimant proceeded to appeal the decision and made several offers to conclude the hire element of the claim before the appeal.
However, all the settlement offers were rejected, and shortly after the appeal hearing was listed the claimant withdrew his appeal, saving our client in the region of £6,000.
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