Court of Cassation Ruling on Badinter Law Application

Extract

[...] In accordance with the interpretation made by the Court of Cassation on the provisions of Article 1er of the law of 5 July 1985, an accident resulting from a victim falling onto a motorized land vehicle does not constitute a traffic accident in that the damage to the victim is caused by no element of the vehicle related to its function of movement. Given this, the Court of Cassation finds a violation of the law of 5 July 1985. Thus, the Court of Cassation quashes and annuls, in all its provisions, the judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal of 9 November 2020. [...]

[...] Court of Cassation, Civil Chamber July No. 21-10.945 - Is a prejudice involving a vehicle parked in a private garage compensable under the provisions of the Badinter Law? - Introduction and detailed plan The question of qualification, and the situations of realization of the accident can sometimes cause some problems in terms of qualification in insurance law. The Court of Cassation has faced this situation in a ruling made in 2022. [...]

[...] In fact, on July the 2 The Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation rendered a cassation judgment, published in the bulletin. It concerns the scope of application of the special regime of road accidents established by the law of July known as the "Badinter" law, and more precisely the circumstances in which its first article does not apply." In this case, while he was working on the roof of his garage, an individual tripped and fell through the skylight of his neighbor's garage, colliding with the vehicle parked there and injuring himself. [...]

[...] This decision of the Court of Cassation comes to reiterate an interpretation of article 1 of the law no. 85-677 of 5 July 1985 which the Paris Court of Appeal had already distorted in its judgment of 9 November 2020. It will therefore be a question for us to present first of all the rules relating to the case of road accident in accordance with article 1he of the law of 7 July 1985 and on the other hand the regime of compensation Rules relating to road accidents involving a motor vehicle The Badinter law requirements related to road traffic accidents The requirement of a motor vehicle (as defined by Article L 110-1 of the Highway Code, 'any land vehicle equipped with a propulsion engine, including trolleybuses, and circulating on the road by its own means, except for vehicles moving on rails') road accident caused by the motor vehicle Damage caused by the motor vehicle road accident (the damage must be linked to the accident; existence of a simple presumption of causality) in case of complex accident there is only one accident according to the jurisprudence1. [...]