Isabel Maria Pinheiro Vieira Rodrigues de Andrade and Fausto da Silva Rodrigues de Andrade v José Manuel Proença Salvador and Others.

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Celex Number: 62016CJ0514
• ECLI: ECLI:EU:C:2017:908
• Docket Number: C-514/16
• Court: Court of Justice (European Union)
• Procedure Type: Cuestión prejudicial - inadmisible
• Date: 28 November 2017

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Grand Chamber)

28 November 2017 (*1 )

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Compulsory insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles — Directive 72/166/EEC — Article 3(1) — Concept of ‘use of vehicles’ — Accident on a farm — Accident involving an agricultural tractor that was stationary but with the engine running in order to drive a spray pump for applying herbicide)

In Case C‑514/16,

REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Tribunal da Relação de Guimarães (Court of Appeal, Guimarães, Portugal), made by decision of 23 June 2016, received at the Court on 3 October 2016, in the proceedings

Isabel Maria Pinheiro Vieira Rodrigues de Andrade,

Fausto da Silva Rodrigues de Andrade

v

José Manuel Proença Salvador,

Crédito Agrícola Seguros — Companhia de Seguros de Ramos Reais SA,

Jorge Oliveira Pinto,

THE COURT (Grand Chamber),

composed of K. Lenaerts, President, A. Tizzano, Vice-President, M. Ilešič, L. Bay Larsen, T. von Danwitz, C.G. Fernlund and C. Vajda, Presidents of Chambers, J.‑C. Bonichot, A. Arabadjiev (Rapporteur), C. Toader, M. Safjan, D. Šváby and A. Prechal, Judges,

Advocate General: Y. Bot,

Registrar: A. Calot Escobar,

having regard to the written procedure,

after considering the observations submitted on behalf of:

– Mrs Pinheiro Vieira Rodrigues de Andrade and Mr da Silva Rodrigues de Andrade, by L. Ferreira, advogado,

– the Portuguese Government, by L. Inez Fernandes, M. Figueiredo and S. Jaulino, acting as Agents,

– the Estonian Government, by N. Grünberg, acting as Agent,

– Ireland, by L. Williams, G. Hodge, M. Browne and A. Joyce, acting as Agents, and by C. Toland, Senior Counsel, and G. Gibbons and J. Buttimore, Barristers-at-Law,

– the Spanish Government, by V. Ester Casas, acting as Agent,

– the Latvian Government, by I. Kucina and G. Bambāne, acting as Agents,

– the United Kingdom Government, by G. Brown, acting as Agent, and by A. Bates, Barrister,

– the European Commission, by M. França and K.-P. Wojcik, acting as Agents,

having decided, after hearing the Advocate General, to proceed to judgment without an Opinion,

gives the following

Judgment

1 This request for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of Article 3(1) of Council Directive 72/166/EEC of 24 April 1972 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles, and to the enforcement of the obligation to insure against such liability (OJ, English Special Edition 1972 (II), p. 360; ‘the First Directive’).

2 The request has been made in proceedings between (1) Mrs Isabel Maria Pinheiro Vieira Rodrigues de Andrade and Mr Fausto da Silva Rodrigues de Andrade (together ‘Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade’), and (2) Mr José Manuel Proença Salvador, Crédito Agrícola Seguros — Companhia de Seguros de Ramos Reais SA (formerly Rural Seguros — Companhia de Seguros SA; ‘CA Seguros’) and Mr Jorge Oliveira Pinto concerning the fact that Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade were ordered to pay compensation for the loss suffered by Mr Proença Salvador as a result of the death of his wife following an accident involving an agricultural tractor, which occurred on the farm on which she was working.

Legal context

3 Directive 2009/103/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 September 2009 relating to insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles, and the enforcement of the obligation to insure against such liability (OJ 2009 L 263, p. 11) repealed the First Directive. However, given the date of the facts of the case in the main proceedings, the case is still governed by the First Directive.

4 Article 1 of the First Directive provided: ‘For the purposes of this Directive: 1. “vehicle” means any motor vehicle intended for travel on land and propelled by mechanical power, but not running on rails, and any trailer, whether or not coupled; …’

5 Under Article 3(1) of that directive: ‘Each Member State shall, subject to Article 4, take all appropriate measures to ensure that civil liability in respect of the use of vehicles normally based in its territory is covered by insurance. The extent of the liability covered and the terms and conditions of the cover shall be determined on the basis of these measures.’

6 Article 4 of that directive provided: ‘A Member State may act in derogation of Article 3 in respect of: … (b) certain types of vehicle or certain vehicles having a special plate; the list of such types or of such vehicles shall be drawn up by the State concerned and communicated to the other Member States and to the Commission. …’

The dispute in the main proceedings and the questions referred for a preliminary ruling

7 Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade have an agricultural holding in Sabrosa (Portugal).

8 The wife of Mr Proença Salvador, Mrs Maria Alves, was employed by them as a part-time agricultural worker. She was, on that basis, under the orders, direction and control of Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade.

9 On 18 March 2006, Mrs Alves was applying herbicide to the vines in the vineyard of Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade on land that was on a slope and terraced.

10 The herbicide was inside a drum with a spraying device mounted on the back part of an agricultural tractor (‘the tractor in question’) and suspended therefrom. The tractor in question was stationary, on a flat track, but with the engine running to drive the spray pump for the herbicide. The weight of the tractor, the vibrations produced by the engine and by the spray pump and the movement, including by Mrs Alves, of the herbicide hose leading from the drum, together with the heavy rainfall that day, caused a landslip which carried the tractor away. The tractor in question fell down the terraces and overturned, reaching the four workers who were applying herbicide to the vines below. Mrs Alves was hit and crushed by the tractor in question, and died as a result.

11 The tractor in question was registered in the name of Mrs Nair Morais da Silva Pinto, the wife of Mr Oliveira Pinto. The latter was Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade’s farm manager and, as such, Mrs Alves’ immediate superior.

12 Mrs Morais da Silva Pinto had concluded an insurance contract with CA Seguros covering the class of ‘tractors and agricultural machines’.

13 Mrs Pinheiro Vieira Rodrigues de Andrade had taken out insurance with another insurance company covering her liability for occupational accidents. That insurance company paid compensation to Mr Proença Salvador, Mrs Alves’ widower, in respect of the material loss resulting from the accident that caused her death.

14 Mr Proença Salvador also brought an action seeking an order either for Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade, Mr Oliveira Pinto and Mrs Morais da Silva Pinto, jointly and severally, or CA Seguros — should that company be obliged to cover the claim — to pay damages for non-material loss resulting from the accident.

15 The court of first instance granted Mr Proença Salvador’s application in part. It found Mr Oliveira Pinto and Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade jointly and severally liable to pay part of the sums claimed, but dismissed the claim against Mrs Morais da Silva Pinto and CA Seguros on the ground that the tractor in question was not involved in a traffic accident capable of being covered by insurance against civil liability in respect of the use of motor vehicles (‘compulsory insurance’), since the accident had not occurred when the tractor at issue was being used as a means of travel.

16 Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade appealed against that judgment to the referring court, the Tribunal da Relação de Guimarães (Court of Appeal, Guimarães, Portugal), arguing that the accident suffered by Mrs Alves occurred while the tractor in question was operating in the course of agricultural work, and therefore had to be covered by the insurance taken out by Mrs Morais da Silva Pinto, irrespective of whether the tractor was stationary, parked or travelling along the track on Mr and Mrs Rodrigues de Andrade’s farm. Mr Oliveira Pinto, who also lodged an appeal against that judgment, submits, in particular, that the insurance contract concluded with CA Seguros covers civil liability for damage caused by implements attached to the insured vehicle and resulting from the operation of that vehicle.

17 The referring court observes that the first-instance judgment is consistent with the case-law of the Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (Supreme Court, Portugal), according to which, in order for an incident to be classified as a ‘traffic accident’, the vehicle involved in the accident must be moving when the accident occurs and the damage to third parties must result from that movement.

18 The Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (Supreme Court) held in a judgment of 17 December 2015, delivered in a case in which the agricultural tractor that caused the fatal accident was stationary at the material time and only the threshing machine attached to it was operating, that, in so far as that tractor was not travelling or being used for that purpose and, moreover, its only function at the time of the accident was to operate the threshing machine, such an accident could not be classified as a ‘traffic accident’.

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