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Insurance
Page 93
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by John Vann, FCII
Animals in the way
• The law is an ass—or so it is said. With regard to animals on the road, the law is peculiar, to say the least. Take straying as an example. It is laid down that the owner /occupier of land adjoining the highway is under no duty to prevent his domestic animals from straying on the highway.
Unfortunately this can adversely affect vehicle owners. Recently a lorry was crossing a narrow bridge in the country early one misty morning, when suddenly out of the gloom something seemed to hurtle towards the lorry. The driver thought he was seeing things! It was a runaway bullock. It didn't stop and charged straight into the lorry, killing itself in the process and causing frontal damage to the vehicle.
When the driver reported the incident to his firm, the operator sent the repair bill to the farmer owning the bullock. He in turn passed it to his insurers. The operator soon had a reply—in the negative. "If a vehicle is damaged in the circumstances outlined," read the insurance letter. "there is no liability on the farmer."
Counter-claim
In fact, the farmer made a counter-claim against the opeator for the value of the bullock. He also received a reply in the negative, as he could not prove that the lorry driver was guilty of negligence. It might have been different if the driver had been aware of the animal and was driving too fast at the time or if there was a sign at the side of the road warning drivers of straying cattle. But there was no evidence of any negligence at all on the part of the driver.
Yet in a court case not very long ago, a lorry driver was held to blame when his 3-tonner injured a cow which had escaped on to the road while being unloaded from a cattle transporter. Two of the farm hands had gone after the cow, one staying ahead of it signalling drivers to slow down. It was alleged that the lorry didn't slow down when signalled to do so and hit the cow at about 30-40 mph. The judge said he would have thought that any prudent man, seeing someone signal him in these circumstances, would slow considerably to see what danger lay ahead.
But it doesn't always go the farmer's way. In another court case, a cow galloped into the roadway from a field and a passing motorist collided with it. The important point here was that the cows were being driven on to the road to go back to the farmyard. In such a case, it is the farmer's duty to ensure that the cows do not put other people and vehicles in danger. The motorist was found not to be negligent and he won the day.