A motorcycle was parked up, but was said to have been hit by a car driven negligently. The car’s insurers said that the claim was fraudulent. The judge found the accounts of the claimants ‘so inconsistent as to be implausible’ and found that they had not proved their cases. She also found their claims to be ‘manufactured or fraudulent’. She therefore dismissed them and ordered the claimants to pay the insurance company’s costs on an indemnity basis. They now complained that the judge’s decision to exclude each from the court while hearing the evidence of the other.
Held: The appeal against the finding of fraud, and the associated indemnity costs succeeded. However, the claimants had indeed failed to prove their case, and the judgment as a whol, with costs on a standard basis stood.
Black, Floyd LJJm Moylan J
[2016] EWCA Civ 764
Bailii
England and Wales
Negligence, Litigation Practice
Updated: 19 January 2022; Ref: scu.566891