Future Generali India Insurance directed to pay for damage to car by water logging

With the advent of monsoons, water logging on roads is an inevitable concern among drivers. The UT Consumer Forum’s recent direction, however, to an insurance company to pay for loss to a vehicle due to water logging, may make the rainy season a smooth ride for city drivers.

The Future General India Insurance Company Limited has been directed to reimburse the claim of Rs 84,962 by a complainant on account of loss to his vehicle while driving. Sumesh Bhardwaj, a resident of Sector 37, Chandigarh, alleged that his car, insured with the company, stopped on the way from Chandigarh to Yamuna Nagar in August 2011, due to water logging. The car was towed from the spot and an intimation was sent to the insurance firm.

The insurance company alleged that the damage was on account of ‘repeatedly trying to start the vehicle in the water’, as there was no external impact either to the vehicle or to the engine and that ‘the complainant ought not to have driven the vehicle on the water logged road and also should not have started the vehicle in the water’.

The forum, however, ruled that “if a person is travelling in a car and all of a sudden if it rained, and water enters the engine or engine is seized, then it is not the fault of the insured.” Attributing that the act was not ‘intentional’ on the part of the driver, the Forum ruled that the insurer was liable to reimburse the claim.

To prove the loss, the complainant had placed on record the tax invoice of Rs 84, 962 given by the company that towed the car. The report of the surveyor was also silent with regard to the loss caused to the vehicle. Thus, the forum held the insurance company liable to pay for the damage caused to the vehicle and also directed the firm to pay a sum of Rs 15,000 as litigation costs.

Shivani Yadav 
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/insurance-firm-directed-to-pay-for-damage-to-car-by-water-logging/969190/0