The High Court has ruled that any liability of Urban and Rural Recycling Limited to an employee injured when a recycling bin fell from a truck lift was required to be covered by compulsory motor insurance. It concluded that the company was entitled to an indemnity under Zurich Insurance plc’s motor policy in respect of the employee’s underlying claim.
Ms Justice Reynolds gave the ruling on 3 September 2021 in a special case agreed by the parties. The court was asked to answer two questions of law about insurance cover, not to determine whether Urban and Rural was liable for the worker’s injuries.
The agreed facts were that on 19 December 2013, employee Joseph Moore was collecting recycling with company principal Michael Wickham. After they stopped the truck at Sinnott’s Store in Duncormick, County Wexford, both got out. Moore loaded a bin onto the truck’s lifting equipment. While he operated the lift, the bin fell from near its emptying position and struck him in the head. The truck was stationary and in a public place.
Moore’s separate personal injury proceedings against his employer allege, among other things, negligence, breach of duty and breach of statutory duty. His case includes an allegation that the lift’s locking mechanism was defective. Urban and Rural denies the alleged wrongdoing and pleaded contributory negligence. Those allegations remain to be determined in the underlying proceedings.
RSA Insurance Ireland DAC had provided employer’s liability cover, while Zurich insured the truck under a commercial motor fleet policy. RSA argued that the motor policy covered the accident and that its own policy excluded liabilities required to be insured under road traffic legislation. Zurich disputed that it had to provide cover.
The judge found that the accident was indisputably connected with the vehicle and a defect in it, on the agreed facts and documents. She held that the truck’s use during the lifting operation fell within the statutory concept of vehicle use, and that Moore was not in charge of the vehicle for the purpose of driving when he was operating the lift. She also considered the way his injury claim was pleaded consistent, on balance, with negligent use for the purposes of compulsory insurance.
The court answered that any liability of Urban and Rural to Moore was required to be insured under the Road Traffic Acts and that the company was entitled to an indemnity under the Zurich policy. The ruling resolved the stated insurance questions; it did not establish that the employer was liable to Moore or determine the amount of any damages.