The claimant , a firefighter, was driving his pony and trap down a country lane with his wife as a passenger. A 14-year-old was coming the other way on a Goped. The youth on the Goped deliberately revved the engine and did a u-turn under the horse’s nose. The horse bolted and the claimant and his wife were thrown out of their buggy.
As the defendant was a minor and these motorised scooters do not carry insurance, the claim proceeded against the MIB. The youth was cautioned by the police for no insurance.
The case went to trial and the claimant’s evidence was preferred to that of the 14-year-old. The case was settled on a compromise basis for £82,000.
CICA Eligibility
The claimant was a train driver who ran over a dead body on the railway track. The issues were:
1. Whether he could prove the victim was a trespasser in terms of the CICA scheme.
2. Whether the claimant was “closely involved in the immediate aftermath of the accident” in terms of the CICA scheme.
The panel found that, although the claimant had come across the body 30 minutes after the likely time of death and never saw the body again after that, he was on any reasonable interpretation ”closely involved”. He was first on the scene and had seen a body that was severely damaged.
It had been argued that the victim may have accidentally fallen from the train. On balance, it was held the deceased must have been a trespasser. He was an illegal immigrant who had stowed onto the train and, as this was a freight train not a passenger train and he did not have a ticket, he was trespassing on the train and then the lines when he came off the train.
CICAP, 8 January 2007.