This story is from December 16, 2017

Court raps insurer for ‘insensible attitude’

Court raps insurer for ‘insensible attitude’
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PUNE: The district consumer court has ruled that delay in submission of claim is not relevant in a case where the sole bread winner of a family has died in a road accident and the widow has to overcome the grief as well as look after two minor children before taking a call on submission of such claim.
The court has taken a strong exception to the ‘insensible attitude’ displayed by ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, located at Sohrab Hall on Sassoon road, in rejecting the personal accident claim benefit that was offered along with a vehicle insurance cover to Maan resident Ashok Babar, who died in a road accident in March 2014.
Babar’s widow Jyoti had filed the claim.
The bench of consumer court president V P Utpat and member Onkar G Patil held on December 13 that the rejection of claim on a “flimsy ground” — that it was submitted belatedly — was tantamount to deficiency in service. It directed the insurance firm to pay accident claim benefit of Rs1 lakh, along with 9% per annum interest since July 9, 2015, when a legal notice was issued to the insurer for rejecting claim, and Rs5,000 as cost to the widow.
The interest payable on the claim amount works out to Rs21,750 till November 30, 2017 and will continue to grow till actual realization of payment. The court has given 45 days time from the date of receipt of order, for the insurance firm to implement the same.
The insurance firm had argued that the claim was submitted one-and-a-half years after the date of accident and hence was not maintainable. It submitted that the claim was closed after the complainant failed to submit record and argued that the insured himself was found guilty of driving the insured vehicle rashly and negligently and therefore cannot take advantage of his own wrong.
However, the bench observed, “There is no cogent documentary evidence adduced on record by the insurance firm to corroborate that the accident took place due to negligence of the deceased insured.” It also observed that the office copy of the notice issued to the insurer revealed that all necessary documents were submitted to the firm.
“It is significant to note that the complainant is the widow and she could not file the claim immediately due to grief of death of her husband and she had to manage the family alone. In these circumstances, delay in submitting the claim is not germane. The insurance firm ought to have settled the death claim sympathetically after considering the precarious condition of the family of the deceased insured,” the bench said.
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About the Author
Vishwas Kothari

Vishwas Kothari is a special correspondent at The Times of India, Pune. He covers news relating to the education and aviation sectors in Pune. Vishwas has a degree in Mass Communication from Nagpur University, and has participated in the US Government's International Visitors' (IV) Fellowship Programme on `Urban Environmental Issues' in 2005. He writes on crime, courts and legal jurisprudence, defence and corporate affairs too. He loves sports and movies and gorges on infotainment magazines.

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