17 November 2011
On and on. X Factor? No, the credit hire litigation....
PUTTING PAID TO DEFENCE
On and on. X Factor? No, the credit hire litigation. Accident Exchange has recently trumped the defence of the tortfeaser’s insurers that credit hire charges were irrecoverable because of the unenforceability of two hire agreements. The deft route to success was for the claimant to notionally pay the charges. What happened is that Accident Exchange as agent for the claimant’s insurers transferred the amount of the charges of £138,000 to…Accident Exchange. “Meeting fire with fire” is how the claimant’s silk put it in W v Veolia Environmental Services (UK) PLC [2011] EWHC 2020 (QB), [2011] All ER (D) 280 (Jul) which was heard by Judge Mackie QC sitting in the London Mercantile Court.
The claimant would be under a duty to account to his insurers for hire charges recovered as damages and if the underlying hire agreements were unenforceable that would have no impact on the duty to account. A novel argument, which the judge upheld,
