Armstead v Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Co Ltd [2024] UKSC 6; [2024] 2 W.L.R. 632 concerned facts that might have been lifted from an undergraduate examination. It has important lessons for anyone interested in the fundamentals of negligence. Ms Armstead suffered the misfortune of being involved in two traffic collisions, neither of which was her fault but both of which damaged vehicles in her possession. After the first, she hired a vehicle from Helphire, on credit hire terms, while her own was under repair. Clause 16 of their agreement stated that Ms Armstead was liable to pay Helphire the daily rate (£130 per day) for each day that the car was unavailable to Helphire if Ms Armstead returned it in a damaged state. Due to the second collision – caused by a second careless driver – the car needed 12 days of repair work. Ms Armstead therefore owed Helphire £1,560. The Supreme Court held that she could recover that amount from the second careless driver. The framework of analysis should be straightforward …
€ (Westlaw)
Alexander Waghorn, ‘Remoteness in the Supreme Court’, (2024) 140(Oct) Law Quarterly Review 502-507.
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