09 April 2014
Court ruled English law governs recoverable damages of death in Germany
A widow has lost her Supreme Court appeal that the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 applied to the death of her husband in a bicycle accident in Germany. In Cox v Ergo Versicherung AG (formerly known as Victoria) [2014] UKSC 22, the justices considered the territorial application of the 1976 Act. The appellant accepted that German law governed the liability of the driver, but argued that English law governed the recoverable damages. However, the court unanimously held that the German damages rules applied.
