Who Should Compensate for Damage After a Traffic Accident if MTSBU Payments Are Insufficient — Court Decision

The Rivne Court of Appeal reviewed the decision of the lower court, which the defendant disagreed with and requested to be canceled and a new decision to be made to deny the claim for compensation for damage caused by the traffic accident. This was reported by the Rivne Court of Appeal.

The plaintiff's representative insisted on leaving the appealed court decision unchanged and on dismissing the appeal.

The panel of judges, having examined the case materials and the arguments of the appeal, and having heard the explanations of the participants in the court hearing, concluded to partially satisfy the defendant's appeal for the following reasons.

The court established that as a result of the traffic accident that occurred in February 2022 due to the defendant's fault, the plaintiff suffered bodily injuries and underwent a lengthy course of treatment with surgical intervention and rehabilitation.

By the ruling of the first instance court in December 2024, the defendant was exempted from criminal liability under Article 46 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine due to reconciliation with the victim, and the criminal proceedings were closed.

As a result of the accident, the plaintiff suffered material and moral damage, which consisted of expenses for her treatment and rehabilitation, for the compensation of which the victim applied to the court with this claim.

In turn, the defendant denied the plaintiff's right to receive compensation for material and moral damage on the grounds that she should have applied to the insurance company for compensation within the liability limit, as well as on the grounds of the lack of proof of the amount of material damage and the causal link between the accident and moral damage, and denied his obligation to the victim.

The Rivne Court of Appeal did not agree with these assertions of the appellant, since his civil liability as the owner of the vehicle at the time of the accident was not insured under the compulsory civil liability insurance contract for owners of land vehicles. In such a case, the approach that the victim must in any case apply with a claim to the insurance company is unfair.

The court found that the Motor (Transport) Insurance Bureau of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as MTSBU) paid the victim the approved compensation amount.

Since the payment made by MTSBU to the plaintiff was insufficient to fully compensate the damage caused by the defendant, the victim has the right to compensation from the person who caused the damage.

The plaintiff proved with proper and admissible evidence the expenses incurred for treatment, purchase of medical drugs and medical devices, consultations with a psychiatrist/psychotherapist who prescribed her a course of therapy and psychotherapy due to generalized anxiety disorder caused by the accident.

When determining the amount to be recovered from the defendant in favor of the plaintiff for treatment expenses, the lower court took into account the funds voluntarily paid by the defendant to the plaintiff.

However, the local court mistakenly did not reduce the amount recovered from the defendant by the amount of the payment made by MTSBU to the victim.

In view of this, the panel of judges concluded to partially satisfy the defendant's appeal, according to which the material damage awarded by the first instance court should be reduced by the amount paid by MTSBU.

At the same time, the Rivne Court of Appeal agreed with the local court's decision regarding the recovery of moral damages from the defendant in favor of the plaintiff, as it is lawful and reasonable, and the amount is sufficient, proportionate, and fair, although it has a purely conditional expression since there are no and cannot be exact criteria for the monetary expression of the mental suffering caused to the plaintiff by the defendant.

Given that the first instance court violated substantive law in the part of recovering material damage, the appellate court canceled that part and made a new decision to recover material damage from the defendant in favor of the plaintiff, deducting the regulatory payment made by MTSBU.

The decision of the Rivne Court of Appeal dated July 9, 2026, in case No. 569/15235/25 (proceeding No. 22-ts/4815/1168/26) will be available in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions.

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