Even though he emerges victorious from a lawsuit after 23 years, an Italian motorist is unlikely to find joy in it, because by the time his legal battle ended and he regained his driver’s license, he was 85 years old, writes the Ansa Italian news agency.

Back in 1996, the man’s driving license was revoked after he was placed under special surveillance and the Agrigento prefecture deemed that he did not meet the moral requirements for driving. His observation did not end until after the turn of the millennium – that’s when the man asked for his driver’s license to be returned, and this was the beginning of the long litigation.


With the help of his lawyers, the man first managed to get a temporary driver’s license at the regional administrative court in Catania, which allowed him to drive again. The case of the revoked driver’s license was taken to the court in Palermo, where after 23 years it was declared that the man must get his driver’s license back.

After this was done, on the advice of lawyers, the 85-year-old went ahead and sued the Ministry of Economy in the Court of Appeal of Catania for dragging his case on for an unreasonably long time.

The judges found him to be right, so the ministry was ordered to pay 8,000 euros in damages, in addition to court costs, 3.1 million forints converted, at the same time they determined that a decision should have been made after three years, i.e. the unjustified fluffing lasted for 20 years.