A company demands 34 thousand dirhams from an employee who caused a car accident

The Abu Dhabi Family, Civil and Administrative Claims Court ruled to reject a company’s lawsuit demanding that its driver pay 34 thousand dirhams for the value of a car that he damaged in a traffic accident and caused damage to public property. The court indicated that the papers did not contain any official document from the competent authorities stating that the vehicle was not fit to drive or claiming the value of the damage.

In detail, a company filed a lawsuit against its driver, demanding that he be obligated to pay it an amount of 29 thousand dirhams for the value of a car owned by it that had been involved in a traffic accident, and obligating him to pay an amount of 5,000 dirhams, the value of the damages that affected public property, while obliging him to pay the fees and expenses of the lawsuit and attorney’s fees, noting that the defendant works for it, and his negligence, lack of attention, and high speed caused a traffic accident that led to the car owned by it being permanently written off, as it was no longer repairable and also caused damage. On public property on the sidewalk and surrounding agriculture, as well as on a sewer cover, according to the incident report.

While the defendant decided, during his interrogation, that the accident occurred by act of God, and not because of his fault, and that he was assigned to work during the evening shift for three months and this caused him fatigue, in addition to the fact that the technical condition of the car is low, and the car is covered by insurance and the company does not have the right to legally demand a claim from him, and there is no commitment from him to the company about the accidents that occur to the car, and he requested the cancellation of the lawsuit against him.

While the technical expert report showed that the accident report attributed the cause of the accident to the driver’s negligence, not paying attention, and driving the car at a high speed exceeding 40 km, indicating that the car can be repaired, in principle, but repair requires basic parts of the structure and mechanics and a lot of work, and when repaired, the car is economically unfeasible and not capable of safe use, and that the estimated repair cost exceeds 50% of the market value of the car that is the subject of the lawsuit before the accident occurred, and thus the car that is the subject of the lawsuit is considered a total loss.

The technical expert report indicated that the plaintiff did not provide any evidence that the car subject of the lawsuit was written off by the competent traffic authority, pointing out that the market value of the car before the accident occurred was estimated at 29 thousand dirhams, and the value of the car’s wreckage amounted to 12 thousand dirhams.

For its part, the court explained in the merits of its ruling that the decision on the roadworthiness of vehicles falls within the jurisdiction of one of the government agencies, and it is the one who decides, after presenting the matter to it and according to its procedures, to state the safety of the car and its suitability to drive according to the standards approved by that authority, noting that the plaintiff company did not submit any official document issued by the competent authority stating that the car is not roadworthy, and its claim came sent without providing evidence for it.

Regarding the second request, which is to oblige the defendant to pay her an amount of 5,000 dirhams for the damage that affected the public property represented by the sidewalk and the farms, the court pointed out that the lawsuit papers lacked evidence of the plaintiff paying the value of the damage to public property caused by the defendant, and the documents also came devoid of any demand by Abu Dhabi Municipality for her to pay the value of the damage, and the court ruled to reject the lawsuit as it stands, and obligate the plaintiff to pay the fees and expenses of the lawsuit.