Replay over soccer star's crash costs

After the accident in February 2007 in his 72,000 sports car, the Sunderland soccer star hired an Aston Martin DB9, worth about 105,000.

In a written Court of Appeal judgment, Lord Justice Jacob said the defendants in the case, Highways and Utilities Construction, whose driver was at fault in relation to the accident, and the company's insurers, Allianz Insurance, believed the total hire cost of 63,406.90 "was too much for two reasons".

Mr Justice Jacob, who heard the case with Lord Justice Leveson and Mr Justice Briggs, added: "First, that the provided car was more expensive, and so likely to be more costly to hire, than Mr Bent's own car.

"And second, that in any event Mr Bent, pursuant to his duty to mitigate, ought to have hired from the 'spot' market which would have been cheaper by someone paying there and then, rather than on credit."

A judge at Cambridge County Court had rejected both points.

Giving the background to the case, Lord Justice Jacob said both defendants accepted liability for the accident and accepted that Mr Bent "was in need of a replacement car whilst his car was being mended".

He continued: "They also accept that he was entitled to hire a broadly equivalent car to his own, damaged Mercedes and that they will have to pay appropriate hire charges."

They also accepted that the period of hire "albeit a lengthy period of 94 days", cannot be challenged as unreasonable.

What the defendants "do not accept is that they will have to pay the full hire charges for what Mr Bent actually hired".

Ruling on a successful challenge against the county court judgment by the defendants, the judges sent the case back for a retrial.