KING PRICE 3RD PARTY CLAIM

Please remember that a third-party claim is considered a legal claim and is not a normal insurance claim, thus legal principles are app****.

To determine what the client is “legally responsible” to pay for, consideration needs to be given to the obligations placed on a person in control of a vehicle traveling on the public roads as derived from the principles contained in the Law of Delict. In accordance with these principles the action of each party involved in any specific incident (irrespective whether they had right of way or not) is measured against that of a reasonable person under similar circumstances. Should the person’s action in the incident deviate from the action of a reasonable person under the same circumstance, the person’s action is seen as negligent.

Negligence may be deduced on a balance of probabilities from the circumstances of an occurrence.
The action of the “reasonable person” is described in the “Motor Law, Law of Third Party Compensation” by HB Klopper from which we quote:

“The standard used to judge the conduct of a person is that of the reasonable person or bonus paterfamilias. If the principles of negligence are app**** to a motor vehicle accident, the court places itself as far as is possible in the place of the driver at the time of the accident. The conduct of the driver is then compared to that of a reasonable person under the then prevailing circumstances. A driver will be negligent if a reasonable person/driver would have acted differently if the damage caused were reasonably foreseeable and preventable.”

Therefore in this instance an apportionment was app**** hence the reason for only a percentage of the claim being approved.

Considering how the accident occurred our legal team are of the opinion that this is a fair and reasonable offer.