Even destined for scrapping, the car must be insured

ATvis those who keep an old car in their garden! If it still has its license plate, they must insure it, as the following case teaches: in February 2018, the Polish district of Ostrow Wielkopolski becomes, following a court decision, the owner of a Renault Clio in poor condition, abandoned in a parking lot.

He does not have it insured until April 2018, when he receives the copy of the decision to transfer ownership. He decides to send it to the scrapyard, and, on June 22, obtains that it is removed from the registration.

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On July 22, 2018, the Polish Insurance Guarantee Fund fined him the equivalent of 900 euros for not having insured the wreck from February to April. The local authority took legal action, protesting that it did not have to do so: on the one hand, it could not sign a contract without a copy of the court decision; on the other hand, the car, which was in a guarded parking lot and which was not fit to circulate, could not cause any damage to third parties.

Fatal accident

The court in Ostrow Wielkopolski then asks whether the“Insurance obligation” civil liability contained in the directive 2009/103 concerns a “Vehicle” admittedly registered but unfit to circulate, and intended for scrapping. He decides to question the Court of Justice of the European Union, which, on September 4, 2018 (C-80/17), ruled on a similar case.

She ruled that a female driver, Mme Juliana, no longer using her car for health reasons and having immobilized it in her yard, should have continued to insure her. His son had stolen the keys and caused an accident that resulted in the death of his two passengers and his. Portugal’s automobile guarantee fund claimed from Mme Juliana the reimbursement of the 437,345 euros that he had paid to the beneficiaries of the passengers.

To rule as they did, the magistrates of Luxembourg explained that the notion of “Vehicle” contained in Directive 2009/103 must be understood ” objective “, that is to say independently of “Subjective factors” such as“Intention” of the owner to use it or not.

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April 29, 2021 (C-383/19), they consider, likewise, that the concept must be understood independently of the“Intention” of the owner to send the vehicle to the scrapyard or, on the contrary, to have it repaired.

They believe that“Technical condition” of the vehicle, which ” depends ” of this “Intention”, is “Likely to vary”. And that it is not because the latter is, ” at one point “, unfit to circulate, that it always will be. As long as the Jew’s harp is registered, it must therefore be insured.