In a decision delivered by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Tuesday 28 November (C-514-/16) ruled that damage caused by vehicles which are also intended to be used as machines for carrying out work do not have to be covered by compulsory motor-vehicle insurance against civil liability as stipulated in directive 72/166/EC.
In March 2006, a European citizen was found dead on the farm on which she was working, crushed by a tractor which had been stationary with its engine running in order to drive the pump of a herbicide sprayer. The victim’s husband brought an action for damages against either the owners of the farm and the owners of the tractor, jointly and severally, or the insurance company with which the owner of the vehicle had concluded an insurance contract against civil liability in respect of the use of the vehicle.
Requested to tackle this claim, the Guimarães Court of Appeal (Portugal) drew on directive 72/166/EC on the civil liability resulting from the use of vehicles normally based in the territory of the member states must be covered by insurance. It referred the case to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling in order to determine whether the concept of "use of vehicles" covered the normal use of the stationary vehicle generating motive power.
The European Judges consider that the fact that the function of the means of transport of a vehicle under the terms of the directive cannot be excluded by the single fact that the vehicle is stationary or that its engine is not running at the time the accident occurs.
On the other hand, they point out that the concept of “use of vehicles” under the sense of the directive does not apply to a vehicle whose main function, at the time of the accident, was not to serve as a means of undertaking work. The Court considers in this case that the main function of the tractor at the time of the accident was to carry out work and not as a means of transport. The damages caused by the tractor should therefore not be covered by the compulsory civil liability Insurance under the terms of directive 72/166/EC. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)