INSURANCE CLAIMS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 80, 16 March 1933, Page 8

INSURANCE CLAIMS

COMPANIES' APPEALS. WELLINGTON, Wednesday. In the Appeal Court action, the T. and G. Society and the Commercial Union Assurance Co. v. Johnson and Johnson, was continued this afternoon. The case for the respondent (Mrs Johnson) was continued, counsel submitting that the evidence of the locomotive foreman was conclusive in proving that the accident to Mrs. Johnson had occurred when she was jumping from the car. .She had sustained an “accident” within the terms of the policy and was entitled to recover. In any case, however, the insurance companies had admitted liability, and they could not now repudiate her claim because they had paid the wrong person. The admission of liability and the payment, even though it was made to the wrong person, constituted the companies and Mrs Johnson debtor and creditor respectively, preventing the companies from raising technical defences based on the clauses of the policies. To the defence of the companies that the dispute had not been referred to arbitration by Mrs Johnson, he submitted that “dispute” meant a dispute as to liability, and liability had been admitted by the companies at an early stage of the proceedings. The Court adjourned until to-mor-row.