Your car has been stolen and you want to know if you will be compensated by your insurance? Theft of a vehicle committed during a ruse sale is sometimes excluded from the warranty. The victim seller is not reimbursed if he recklessly leaves the keys inside his car. This was recalled by the Second Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation in a judgment of 8 October 2020.
The owner of a vehicle is the victim of a theft of his car during a test carried out with a view to its sale. He declares the theft to his insurer who denies him his guarantee by opposing him an exclusion clause provided for in the general conditions of the insurance contract. The warranty does not apply in case of theft
clerks while keys are inside, on, or under the vehicle
and therefore a fortiori, when they are on the contact. The Versailles Court of Appeal, however, agreed to compensate the victim by retaining the ruse of the thief who had been violent, threatening to crush him to escape.
The Court of Cassation rejects the judgment of this Court of Appeal. When he got out of his car voluntarily before the perpetrator committed the violence, the insured was negligent in leaving the keys on the starter.
