Multi-storey car park – Fire in parked car causing injury – Passenger obtaining judgment against owner of car – Passenger claiming amount of judgment from insurers of car – Insurance policy covering use of car on the road – Whether vehicle was on a road – Judge dismissing plaintiff’s claim – Appeal allowed
The plaintiff was sitting in a car which was parked in a car parking space in a conventional multi-storey car park. The owner of the car had left a can of lighter fuel behind the front seats which had leaked creating an inflammable gas in the car. After returning to the car and before driving off the owner lit a cigarette and as he did so he ignited the gas and caused a fire. As a result the plaintiff suffered burns. The plaintiff gave notice of proceedings to the insurer of the vehicle and then issued proceedings claiming damages against the owner. Judgment in default was obtained. The plaintiff claimed the amount of the judgment from the insurers under section 151 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 by virtue of which it was the duty of the insurer to satisfy a judgment in respect of a liability which was required to be covered by a policy.
The insurer contended that section 145(3)(a) of the Act only required a policy to insure liability arising out of bodily injury caused "by the use of the vehicle on the road" and that at the time of the accident the car was not being used on a road as defined by section 192 of the Act which stated "road means . . . any highway and other road to which the public has access". The insurer further contended that, even if parts of the car park were held to be a road, the car parking space in which the accident had occurred was not part of any such road. The judge held that the accident had not occurred on a road and that accordingly the plaintiff was not entitled to recover the amount of his judgment from the insurer. The plaintiff appealed.
Held The plaintiff’s appeal was allowed.
1. The definition of "road" in section 192 was to be given a broad meaning consistent with the intention of the Act which was to protect the public and to secure compensation for third parties injured, or caused damage by, the use of motor vehicles.
2. The question was not, is a car park a road, but rather, was there a roadway within the car park, namely, a way marked out for the passage of vehicles controlled by conventional traffic markings and regularly used by members of the public seeking a car parking space. Since vehicles drove regularly over and into parking spaces from the roadway, the whole area of the car park, including the parking spaces, was to be regarded as an integral part of a roadway within the definition of "road" in section 192.
Richard M Barraclough (instructed by Max Barford & Co, of Tunbridge Wells) appeared for the appellant; Charles Corey-Wright (instructed by the solicitor to Eagle Star Insurance Co Ltd ) appeared for the respondents.
