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Court of Justice of European Union (EUCJ), by responding to the joined requests of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and District Court of the City of Vilnius in the preliminary ruling to clarify who has to compensate the damage when civil liability of tractor registered in Lithuania who has caused traffic accident in Germany and its trailer are insured with different insurers, has submitted its opinion.

Court of Justice has pointed out that there are no special rule in EU law on application of the law, according to which the law applicable to indemnity between insurers could be established, therefore provisions of regulations „Roma I“ and „Roma II“ should be applied in the case.

Issues on relationships which have developed between insurers of civil liability of tractor and trailer and establishment of the law applicable to these relationships are examined in this case.

Lithuania and German legal systems lay down different principles for the allocation of responsibility between the insurer of the tractor unit and the insurer of the trailer where the damage is caused by a towing vehicle. In Germany in case insurers have not agreed otherwise, liability on account of the damage resulting from a road traffic accident caused by a vehicle coupled with a trailer must be shared irrespective whether the towed vehicle has disconnected from towing vehicle.

According to the provisions of legal acts of Lithuania damage made during the traffic accident by a compound of towing and towed vehicles provided that both vehicles remained connected during the accident shall be compensated by the insurer of the tractor. Insurer of the trailer is obliged to compensate damage only if it has disconnected from tractor during the accident and the damage caused by the trailer only.

Considering the rulings of the EUCJ the Supreme Court of Lithuania pursuant to national and international law is reopening examination of the case AAS „Gjensidige Baltic“ v. UAB DK „PZU Lietuva“ and will decide shortly what kind of relations have been created between insurers of tractor and trailer, which law is the applicable to them and how the damage caused by the tractor shall be compensated.

On 21 January 2011 traffic accident has took place in Germany where vehicle – tractor VOLVO, connected with trailer, has damaged property owned by other persons. Civil liability of the tractor during the traffic accident was insured against civil liability with the Lithuania branch of AAS Gjensidige Baltic, and civil liability of trailer was insured with insurer JSC DK „PZU Lietuva“. Following claims submitted by representatives in Germany the claimant has paid compensation of EUR 1 254.36, i. e. 4 331.05 LTL.

Case No. 3K-3-415/2014, reference to the EUCJ can be found here: http://www.lat.lt//download/921/3k-3-415(s).docx
Decision of the Court of Justice in Lithuanian: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=173687&pageIndex=0&doclang=lt&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=345224/.