Court of Session Case Decided Under Romanian Law

An Aberdonian man has been awarded more than £50,000 by the Court of Session after suffering a spinal injury in a car accident. However, somewhat unusually, the award was assessed under Romanian law.

Raymond Wylie was on a business trip to Romania when the car he was travelling in crashed into the back of another. When back in Scotland, Mr Wylie raised an action in the Court of Session, which led to the Court having to decide what the applicable law was: the law of Scotland, where the action was raised or the law of Romania, where the accident happened.

In this case, all the major factors of the accident connected it to Romanian law, which would normally result in Romanian law being applied. However, the Court was asked to consider whether the general rule could be displaced where it was ‘substantially more appropriate’ for the case to be decided by another law.

After considering the evidence, Lord Pentland held that the circumstances of the case were not such that it was substantially more appropriate for Scots law to govern the issue of what damages the Pursuer could claim. It was in his opinion just as appropriate for the issues to be addressed by Romanian law as it was by Scots law and therefore the general rule would not be displaced in this instance.

For more information on this, please contact Lewis McDonald.