BURNED STEAMER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 11

BURNED STEAMER

CASE OF L'ATLANTIQUE INSURANCE JUDGMENT UNDERWRITERS MAY APPEAL SENSATIONAL REVELATIONS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received March 30. 5.5 p. 111.) - LONDON. Mnrch 29 A party of Englishmen, after an exciting; journey to Switzerland, obtained documents, which, it is stated, will enable the underwriters immediately to appeal against the Paris court's verdict ordering £2,000,000 insurance to be paid on the line}- L'Atlantique which was burned in the English Channel on January 4, 1933. The documents not only prove that important facts about the steamer's construction were withheld when she was reinsured, but they connect the Stavisky gang with the fire.

The Seine Commercial Tribunal on January 22 last delivered judgment for the plaintiffs, with costs, in the case brought by the Compaguie Sud-Atlan-tique, owners of the liner L'Atlantique, against 69 insurance companies for their part of the insurance effected on the vessel. The i-esult of the which was regarded as a test case by all the underwriters concerned, was that the company formally established its right to abandon the vessel and to call upon the insurance companies to pay the entire sum, 170,900,000 francs (£2,160,000 at current exchange rate), for which the vessel was insured. Of the amount named about 73,000,000 francs worth of direct insurance was taken out in London, but the total amount of British money involved is in the neighbourhood of 130,000,000 francs, as reinsurance for a large sum was effected in London.