MIB Limitation Period Too Short
Byrne v Motor Insurers’ Bureau and another [2007] EWHC 1268 (QB)
QBD
Weekly Law Notes Summary
5 June 2007
The procedure for making a claim to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau for compensation in respect of injury caused by an untraced driver under the Untraced Drivers Agreement 1972, which procedure was relied on by the United Kingdom as implementing art 1(4) of Council Directive 84/5/EEC, should be subject to a limitation period no less favourable than that which applied under s 28 of the Limitation Act 1980 to the commencement of proceedings by minors for personal injury in tort against a traced driver. Because the three-year time limit for the bringing of a claim under the Untraced Drivers Agreement 1972 was not compliant with art 1(4) of the Directive, which was capable of having direct effect, the United Kingdom was in sufficiently serious breach of its Community law obligations to give rise in principle to a liability for damages.