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British Citizens Injured Abroad Take Note!

In an important decision for British citizens who suffer accidents abroad, the High Court has ruled that an army wife who was seriously injured in a road crash in Germany must have her damages claim assessed under German law.

The woman was a passenger in a car being driven by another serviceman's wife at the time of the head-on collision. She suffered a slipped disc, which has caused her continuing pain and depression. The driver's motor insurers admitted liability and the woman's lawyers argued that her damages should be calculated under English law, which they viewed as significantly more generous than its German equivalent.

Both the woman and the driver were British citizens and lived on a British army base. The woman and her husband had always intended to return to the UK – they did so 18 months after the accident – and the car involved was insured and registered in England. It was argued on that and other bases that she was habitually resident in England and that English law should apply.

However, the High Court noted that, under European law, the ordinary rule is that the applicable law should be that of the country where the damage occurs. The woman had been living in Germany, and working as a primary school teacher there, for more than eight years before the accident. Three of her children were at German schools and she had failed to establish that the facts of her case were 'manifestly more closely connected' to England than to Germany.

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