"CONVULSION OF NATURE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 110, 11 May 1943, Page 4

"CONVULSION OF NATURE"

WIDOW WINS £1000 CLAIM (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Monday. Declining to decide what a convulsion of nature is, Mr. Justice Northcroft has given judgment in favour of the widow of a man who lost his life in a flood, but whose insurance policy provided 'that the company should not be liable for loss resulting from earthquake, hurricane, volcanic eruption or other convulsion of nature. The plaintiff was the widow of the Rev. G. E. Williams, Anglican vicar of Eketahuna, who was drowned in his car before the eyes of onlookers on the main Eketahuna-Woodville highway last July. The car was insured with the Wairarapa Automobile Association Mutual Insurance Company, and Mrs. Williams claimed from the company £1000 on her husband's life and the value of the car.

Quoting an authority that ambiguous language'in a policy should be construed more strongly against the party who prepared it, his Honor said the expression "convulsion of nature" was too indefinite to have the effect in this case of excusing the company from its obligations under the policy. While he was not prepared to say what might or might not be a convulsion of nature, he thought the expression did not fit the facts 6f the case.