The Financial Ombudsman (RF) indicates that insurance companies often groundlessly refuse to pay compensation for damage caused a passenger.
Questions and proposals have been sent to the Financial Ombudsman in cases of damages caused by a passenger getting out of a car. RF states that some insurers refuse to pay damage in these matters automatically.
“The refusal will be legitimate only if the damage is caused by the passenger’s fault” – said Tomasz Młynarski, legal adviser in the Financial Ombudsman’s Bureau.
This means that every irregularity in a driver’s or a car owner’s behaviour should lead to claim his or her fault. In this case insurers pay damages. “It convers cases when a driver parks a car in a permitted place so that a passenger may get out of the car. In this case the driver contributes to the damage. Undoubtedly, passengers should take care getting out. On the other hand unless a driver stops in this place, probably an accident will not occur” – Młynarski explained.
He stated that passengers will not be at fault if a sharp wind unexpectedly snatches a car door which the passenger is opening. But a passenger will pay damage if he/she is the owner or co-owner of a car. A similar case covers the situation when a passenger is a child under 13 years old or other person for who the driver is liable.
