MOTOR CAR INSURANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25090, 4 December 1942, Page 3

MOTOR CAR INSURANCE

AN UNSUCCESSFUL CLAIM

Reserved decision in a case of interest to motorists was delivered by Mr F. F. Reid, S.M., in Christchurch recently. The case was one in which the Public Trustee, as executor in the will of Edgar Ernest West, claimed from the Yorkshire Insurance Company the sum of £270. The claim was based on an insurance policy issued by the defendant company over a motor vehicle, owned by West. On October 7, 1940, the car. driven by West, was involved in an accident from which West subsequently died and the car was damaged to such an extent that it was worth only £l2O after the accident. The car was insured for £390, and after the accident, the company repudiated liability under the policy. The executors claimed for £270, the r®. maindcr of the insurance. “At the time of the accident the deceased was driving the car in a damaged and unsafe condition, and I hold that that took him out from under the cover of the policy.” said Mr Reid, giving judgment for the defendant. The defendant company alleged that the car was in a damaged condition at the time of the accident, and the evidence of several expert witnesses satisfied him that the car had been involved in at least one earlier accident. West was aware of this fact and thu* brought himself under one of the exceptions to the policy.