This is a specific little area of law and an area in which people may refrain from asking about. If you made the mistake of getting into a stolen vehicle and you are subsequently involved in an accident, sustaining injury as a result, can you make a claim for compensation? Well to put it bluntly a lot will depend on your knowledge as a passenger. Did you knowingly get into a stolen vehicle or were you unaware that the vehicle was stolen?
If you knowingly got into a stolen vehicle and you are then involved in an accident, sustaining injury, then the law says that you may not have the right to bring a compensation claim. This comes under the latin doctrine of “ex turpi causa” which basically means that from a dishonourable cause an action does not arise. In simple terms this means that you may struggle to claim compensation as your injuries were sustained when you were completing or assisting in an immoral or illegal act. To law abiding citizens, this rule is accepted and clearly justified.
Now it is very different (as common sense would suggest) if a person is injured in a stolen vehicle and that person was unaware that the vehicle was stolen. This would be an unusual scenario but it is not totally unheard of. The most likely scenario would be if someone offers a stranger a lift.
Perhaps you were given a lift and then sustained injury in an accident. You may not have known the driver and you may not have known that the vehicle was stolen. If you had been given a lift from a stranger then it is likely that you had no way of knowing that you were in a stolen vehicle. This scenario is very different and the law does offer some protection to the unbeknown, unsuspecting passenger.
The difficulty comes in proving that you did not know the vehicle was stolen, especially if you knew the driver for example. A driver of a stolen vehicle is probably unlikely to offer a stranger a lift. A lift would more likely be offered if he knew the person in some capacity for example. However a person may know the driver but may not know the vehicle is stolen, hence in this situation it may be difficult to prove that the passenger was unaware that the vehicle was stolen.
You see cases with all kinds of factual differences. In the case of Stych v Dibble & Tradex Insurance the Claimant accepted a lift from the Defendant in a customer’s vehicle. The Defendant was working at a garage and the car was a customer’s vehicle from the said garage. An accident occurred and the Claimant was injured. The insurers of the vehicle had to show that the Claimant was aware or had reason to believe that the vehicle was stolen, in order to successfully defend the claim. The Claimant stated that as the Defendant worked at a garage he frequently drove vehicles belonging to customers at the garage. The Claimant was unaware he was in a stolen vehicle (he did not question whether or not the Defendant had permission to drive the vehicle) and the case was resolved in favour of the Claimant (i.e. the Claimant was able to recover compensation for the injuries sustained in the accident).
The case law suggests that if you unknowingly travel in a stolen vehicle and are injured in an accident, you have the right to recover compensation. As the driver is driving a stolen vehicle which he is not insured to drive. Any compensation is paid by the insurers of the vehicle, notwithstanding the fact that they had not insured the driver to drive that particular vehicle.
If the insurers can show that the Claimant was aware that the vehicle was stolen, they will not have to pay any compensation. Subsequently, if the Claimant is aware that the vehicle is stolen, they cannot claim for personal injury against the driver due to participation in an illegal act (the “ex turpi causa” rule).
