A millionaire property developer has failed in his bid to claim around £2m from a transport company that damaged two classic sports cars it had been transporting from a rally outside Paris.
Paul Knapfield, 73, is the director of Beaconsfield-based property development company Rivercrest Developments.
In 2019, French events company Peter Auto arranged to transport two of Knapfield’s classic cars – a Mercedes Benz CLK GTR 97 valued at €9.25m (£7.9m) and a Talbot-Lago T26 GS Franay Cabriolet valued at £2.25m – to a two-day festival at Chantilly, north of Paris.
They were transported to and from the festival on a vehicle transporter operated by specialist worldwide vehicle transporter CARS.
On the way back, on July 3, 2019, the transporter’s driver stopped at Cobham services to refuel, and discovered the Talbot had come free of some of its wheel straps and rolled into the front of the Mercedes, causing damage.
In total, repairs to the vehicles cost around £100,000.
At a five-day trial last month, CARS accepted liability. However, under the Carriages of Goods By Road Act of 1965, it argued that liability was limited to around $20,000.
Lawyers for Knapfield argued that liability shouldn’t be limited because transport crossed international boundaries. They also alleged wilful misconduct by the carrier, said misrepresentations had been made about insurance, and said that CARS had offered to cover the cost of the damage.
At trial, expert witnesses gave evidence on the devaluation caused to the cars by the accident. According to the ruling, the experts said the Talbot had lost £450,000 in value and the CLK 97 had lost €1.85m, bringing the total cost of the accident to £2m.
But in the ruling handed down today, judge Charles Hollander QC found the 1965 Act did apply and, as such, the claim was limited to around $20,000.
The CLK 97, chassis number 00004, was built by Mercedes and AMG in 1997 to take part in that year’s FIA GT championship – the inaugural year of the championship, which ran until 2009. Mercedes AMG won.
Only five Mercedes Benz CLK GTR chassis had any significant race history. As the winner of the inaugural championship, this particular CLK was “the best and most coveted of all the CLK GTR chassis and has been described… a landmark car in GT motorsport history”, the judge said in his ruling.
The Talbot is also part of motor racing history. It was built in 1948, one of approximately 32 hand-built T26 G5s. All chassis parts were proprietary, made in house by Automobiles Talbot and built by hand to the customer’s order from a coachbuilder. This Talbot was fitted with a one-off cabriolet body by Parisian coachbuilder Franay.
“It is said such cars are treated by their owners and prospective purchasers as works of art,” the judge said.
Mr Paul Knapfield v CARS Holdings Limited and others
QBD (Charles Hollander QC) 13 June 2022
