When Illegal Acts Don't Drive Away Your Claims

In Ali v HSF Logistics, the Court of Appeal considered the illegality defence (aka ex turpi causa) that a claimant should not be able to pursue a cause of action arising from its own illegal act. It held that not having a valid MOT certificate did not prevent a driver from claiming damages for a hire car following a crash with a lorry.

No MOT

A's Volvo, whose MOT certificate had expired some four and a half months prior, was negligently damaged and rendered unroadworthy by an HSF Logistics lorry. A brought a credit hire claim for hiring a replacement vehicle whilst his car was being repaired.

Lower courts: the "causation defence"

The County Court and High Court found that A's claim failed on the basis of what was termed the "causation defence": namely that A suffered no loss as a result of the tort committed by the lorry driver as A did not have a vehicle that was usable prior to the accident, so it followed that there could be no claim for loss of use.