car accident with horse

[lauryloo]

in june our car was written off by a horse that had got loose running onto the road and into our car.

Hubby was driving and myself and 2 year old SN DD were in the car. Police attended and said we were lucky to be alive - which we really are!

I had literally just settled a car accident claim that afternoon where someone had driven into me. I spoke to my solicitor after this accident and she agreed to fight our case.

The problem we are having is that all 3 of us were injured (7 months later i am still having physio on my shoulder) and the owner of the horse is claiming he has no insurance, and won't answer letters our solicitor sends him and his own solicitor has told our solicitor to stop calling! He has admitted that the horse wasn't on his land but won't actually tell us where the horse was kept!

Obviously we want to claim for injuries and the cost of our car (it was only 2 months old) as we don't want our insurance to take a hit.

has anyone experienced anything like this?

It’s unfortunate but I don’t think you will get much joy from the owner or the place where the horse was kept.

Suppose it had been a wild stag?

Money won't magic your shoulder better. The NHS can treat it though.

private physio would make it loads better though.

Is your insurance not chasing for you ? Why are you doing all the work ?

Jeez LEM the OP has repeatedly said her and her child were injured and lucky to be alive, banging on about how sorry you feel for the horse is weirdly inappropriate in those circumstances.

OP you'd be best getting your insurers to sort it. The reality is if the owner has nothing, he has nothing to give so it's a pointless endeavour chasing him.

At the very least you'll save the fees of your solicitor who seems to be pretty hopeless

LEMtheoriginal the horse almost killed the OP's child. In a situation like that I would have no sympathy for owner nor horse. People should be held accountable for their big, powerful pets.

However in this situation lauryloo your solicitor sounds useless and possibly trying to milk you for more fees on a hiding to nothing. Hopefully your insurance company will be trying to recover costs for the car from the other party.

Your injury is impacting your life and your family were almost killed so you're absolutely justified feeling as you do, but it sounds as though your mental health will suffer if you can't move on. It would be easier if you could think of it the same way you would if the horse had been a wild animal owned by nobody.

It’s an uninsured loss - not the insurer’s problem.

Bloody hell @LEMtheoriginal we get it you feel sorry for the horse.

I love horses and all animals and hate them getting injured or killed, but quite understandably the op is slightly more concerned with her children who could have died!! Jesus Christ.

Stop guilt tripping the OP about the horse. It will obviously have been a traumatic thing for her family at the scene, this thread is about other aspects of the accident.

Tne oersin respinsible for the poor horses death and the multiple troubles the OP is going through is the owner. The sooner owners of potentially dangerous animals like horses and dogs have to have compulsory insurance the better.

OP, have you looked at your contents insurance? I get legal advice, and am able to claim personal injury via my home contents insurance.

i do feel sorry for the owner of the horse, of course i do. Its a situation where everybody lost. But I do feel resentment that he won't answer our solicitor. I am not asking him personally to pay anything and i wouldn't feel happy putting a charge against his house or anything I just want to know if he has any insurance that we can claim off. FIL is a farmer and has to have public liability insurance for his animals, so i assume he or the farmer whose land he keeps the horse on has to have similar.

Im sorry Op im not in a goid place just now. I do understand.

Sadly id say if he was insured it would simply have been left in his insurers hands. It doesn't appear like he is insured.

I think you need to ask for yourself if you are up for a battle or whether you need to put it behind you. Can you get some counselling? Irrelevant of whether you persue this you must need to talk this through

FIL is a farmer and has to have public liability insurance for his animals,

I'm not sure that 3rd party insurance is compulsory if you keep livestock, though it would make sense, especially if you have footpaths on the land. It certainly isn't for a pet, like a horse.

Not one place I’ve kept horses has had public liability insurance, although I always had my own.

Lem has had enough stick now.
Op I hope you get it sorted it must have been really scary

I don't know any of the legal ins and outs so can't help with that but I just want to say that I have had a similar experience in that I have been seriously injured in an accident that wasn't my fault but was unable to claim back any money (for the very expensive physiotherapy I had to have or work contracts lost). It was very frustrating and it took me a long time to get over it and accept that I was never going to be compensated so I understand,

You need to give it up as a lost cause. Are you on no win/no fee or legal expense scheme? Do not throw your own money at this any further. There are things that happen every day where people are injured without recompense e.g. wild deer running into cars. I think you need to move on, frustrating as it is.

I totally understand the frustration. You are angry and this is so unfair.
You want justice and closure.
But I fear you might not get it. I have no idea what your rights are legally. Is it worth speaking to your insurance company again.

The solicitor seems incompetent and is presumably very expensive. What are her costs so far? Maybe you need to be brutal and ask her what exactly she plans to do and say you won't be paying unless you can see some progress.

There isn't a requirement for the horse owner to have public liability insurance in law I'm afraid OP. Most of us do, mine comes from having British Horse Society membership.

The land owner will have some sort of PL cover in place to cover his property owners liability but you are right, you will need to dig to establish that. Even then he will only be liable if the horse escaped because it arose out of something on his land, defective fencing etc.. If the horse owner had simply lost control and it had buggered off down the road then that will have nothing to do with the land owner.

Have you got the legal expenses extension on your policy? Your insurers will normally do the digging if you have that.

I wouldn't give up yet. Has your solicitor written to the land owner? Do you have any evidence of defective fencing etc.?

I also had a car accident with a run away horse, horse owner uninsured, so I stupidly claimed through my insurance to fix the damage to the car.

I wish I had known it goes down as my fault even though it wasn't because the insurance company could not claim the money from anyone.

This made my insurance premium increase and I kept having to declare the accident that wasn't my fault. My car was parked, the horse ran into it and bent in the side.

Police were involved as the owner saw the damage to the cars (yes plural) and led the horse away leaving the scene of the accident.

But be aware it could go down as your fault even though it isn't as they could not claim the money back from anyone.

8Flatpackbox* i think you may be incorrect about the liability of the person from whose land the horse escaped in that there is no requirement to show negligence has occurred, as with horses escaping/being let out etc, it is a strict liability.

Which act is that then Jon?

Dh co-owns a diy livery yard and has public liability insurance, I insisted on it as he wasn't going to bother.

I would assume that if a horse got out due to a fence/boundary issue and caused damage that dh would be responsible and could be sued by not only the horse owner if the horse was injured but also any car driver who had their car damaged.

If the horse owner left a gate open then I would expect not to be liable.

I presume if they're not really discussing things with you you have no idea how the horse got out? Might jut be worth contacting the farmer and saying you're thinking of suing him and see how talkative he is?

Horrible accident to be in. I'm work in the personal injury sectors and am a horse owner and rider, this is one of my worst fears! Did the land owner own the horse also or someone else? Why was the horse out was if faulty fencing/escape from handler or owner? These can effect who is responsible and what insurance you can look to. Has your solicitor discussed with the option of the MIB? They deal with matters involving uninsured drivers I'm unsure if it extends to uninsured horse owners. Otherwise if he has no funds there is no option but to drop it and get your insurance to sort your car out

MIB refers to uninsured motorists.

It is a long time since I learned about random statues that I no longer use but the property owner owes a duty of care to ensure his boundaries are secure and the horse owner could have a liability under the Animals act depending on circumstances- both pretty irrelevant if they happen to be uninsured paupers (not that I am saying they are)!

Let’s wait for Jon to educate us!

MIB refers to uninsured motorists.

The clue is in the name.

It’s also paid for via contributions from motor insurance premiums.

I would just let it go OP.

You would have to prove that the horse got out because the land owner was negligent and not fencing against stock escaping onto the roads. The owner doesn't have insurance, so the best you could hope for is that the elderly father owns the house, dies and leaves the property to the son. Then you could go after the house.

The only other way is to prove that the landowner was negligent and that they have insurance to claim from. Or enough assets to force a sale to pay for your damages. You almost died and so did your family, but you didn't. You were injured and that's sad BUT you likely won't get anywhere with compensation as there is no one who is able to compensate you, regardless of who is at fault.