Justice has condemned the Ojastro City Council, in La Rioja, to compensate Allianz Seguros with 2,724.75 euros, the insurer of the driver of a vehicle that collided with a wild boar. The City Council must pay that amount for the repairs that the car had to undergo. considering him financially responsible for the accident. Usually, the driver is the one who must face the expenses of this type of accidents with wild animals, but in this case the Justice considered the City Council responsible for what happened since the wild boar came from a municipal hunting reserve.
The events occurred on December 19, 2021, at kilometer 16’1 of the LR-111 highway, which is attributed to the municipal property preserve LO-10,092 of the defendant City Council, according to the ruling of the contentious-administrative court number 1 of Logroño made public last July.
The judge highlights in his ruling that, one day before the accident, hunting in the preserve, which has, among its hunting uses, that hunting species.
Claim
After the accident, the affected person filed a claim for damages against the Ojacastro City Council for the damage caused. in his insured’s vehicle, which was rejected due to administrative silence.
In its appeal, the plaintiff, in this case Allianz Seguros, maintained that it was entitled to compensation for the amount paid by the company to its insured, based on the invoice presented to him from a workshop in La Rioja.
The judge explains in his ruling that the regional legislation of La Rioja, in article 13 (Damage caused by game) of Law 9/1998 of July 2 on Hunting in La Rioja, states that “the responsibility for the Damage caused by game species in all types of terrain will be determined in accordance with the provisions of applicable state, civil or administrative legislation.”
Responsible
The ruling recalls that the Traffic Law has introduced several changes in this regard in recent years, but that the last modification, in 2014, established that in traffic accidents caused by running over game species on public roads sThe driver of the vehicle will be responsible for damage to people or property, “without being able to claim for the value of the animals that break into them.”
Even so, it includes exceptions, such as that it will be responsible for damages the owner of the hunting use or, failing that, “the owner of the land when the traffic accident is a direct consequence of a collective hunting action of a species of big game carried out on the same day or that concluded twelve hours before that”, something that had occurred in this case.
The law also provides that the owner of the public road on which the accident occurs will be responsible as a result of “not having repaired the enclosing fence.” within the deadline, if applicable, or for not having specific signage for loose animals.” in sections with high accident rates due to vehicle collisions with animals.
For all this, the court, in a ruling against which there is no appeal, recognizes the right of the plaintiff to be compensated for the damages caused to the vehicle owned by her insured and condemns the Ojacastro City Council to pay the amount claimed plus the legal interest accrued from article 134 of the LRJSP of 2014.