Can A Stolen Car Passenger Claim Compensation?

So, you want to know if a passenger in a stolen car can claim compensation for injuries following a car accident? Not sure why you would want to know this? I’ll presume you are just interested in the area of law or may be you know someone you shouldn’t, lets just call him Fred…So Fred thought it was a good idea at the time to jump into a car with a mate who had just stolen it and go on a joy ride….. he runs it off the road and the car is rolled into a field, poor Fred is injured as a result…. What can Fred do?

The law states that ‘no court will lend its aid to a man (Fred in this case) who founds his cause of action upon an immoral or illegal act’ (Ex Turpi Causa)

This basically means that as Fred was engaged in an illegal act when he was injured, he will not be able to make a claim for compensation.

In the case of Pitts V Hunt, where the person trying to make a claim had been on the back of a motor bike who’s rider had no license to ride, had no insurance and whilst in the presence of the pillion (bike passenger) had consumed a lot of alcohol. The rider of the bike inevitably crashed into another car.

The pillion tried to bring a claim against the car driver and the bike rider but the court dismissed this claim because the ‘Ex Turpi Causa’ rule applied as the pillion had been involved in a joint illegal enterprise and it was therefore against public policy for the claim to proceed.

Crime doesn’t pay:

If someone is injured as part of an illegal convoy, for example, driving or travelling in a stolen car then will be unable to make a traffic accident claim against an ‘at fault party’ (for example as above where a passenger claims against the driver of the stolen vehicle) because the court cannot give rise to illegal behaviour. This is known as the ‘Ex Turpi Causa rule’