Court of Justice 4 December 2003, C-63/01 (Samuel Sidney Evans v The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and The Motor Insurers' Bureau.)

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In a preliminary ruling under Article 234 EC, the Court of Justice held that a body may be regarded as duly authorised under Article 1(4) of Second Directive 84/5/EEC where its obligation to compensate victims of unidentified or insufficiently insured vehicles derives from an agreement with a public authority, provided the agreement obliges the body to provide the compensation guaranteed by the Directive and victims may apply directly to it. The Court further held that compensation must take account of the effluxion of time until actual payment to ensure adequacy, while reimbursement of procedural costs is not mandatorily required except to the extent necessary to safeguard victims' rights under the principles of equivalence and effectiveness. The national court was directed to assess whether any identified transposition defect adversely affected the claimant and, if so, whether the breach was sufficiently serious to give rise to State liability under Community law.AI