The High Court dismissed a woman’s claim against the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland (MIB), finding that the driver involved in the 2011 crash had not remained “untraced” under the applicable agreement.
Mr Justice Barr said Garda David Laird had addresses for Glen Sheridan, the driver identified by the plaintiff, and could have supplied them to her solicitor through the proper request process. The solicitor had been told in November 2012 that Garda Laird was the investigating officer but did not contact him directly until 2018.
The plaintiff’s case was that Sheridan drove her car after an evening out in Clonee, crashed into a lamppost and left the hospital with her. She said she had not seen or heard from him after the accident until seeing him outside court in April 2018. She had no insurance for the car and said Sheridan had told her he had open insurance. Those were her account and submissions; the judgment did not determine the separate questions of insurance cover or liability for the crash.
The MIB argued that Sheridan could not be treated as untraced because the investigating garda had addresses for him and the plaintiff’s solicitor had not made direct inquiries. Garda Laird testified that he had an address from the hospital’s triage records in 2011, another recorded in 2012, and a further address in 2014. He said he could not disclose an address over the telephone, but would have provided it in writing if the request had been made through his District Officer.
The court considered the case under the MIB agreement dated 29 January 2009. It said the MIB could be sued as sole defendant only where the vehicle’s owner or user remained unidentified or untraced. Sheridan’s identity was not in dispute. The central issue was whether he remained untraced after leaving the hospital on the night of the accident.
Mr Justice Barr concluded that it was untenable to say Sheridan remained untraced when no inquiry had been made of Garda Laird, who had relevant address information. The plaintiff therefore had not established an entitlement to sue the MIB as sole defendant, and her claim was dismissed.
The judge did not decide other issues raised in argument, including whether the plaintiff knew Sheridan lacked insurance or had consumed too much alcohol, or whether she had failed to cooperate with the investigation. The judgment records that those questions were unnecessary to determine given the finding on whether the driver was untraced.