A Maharashtra consumer commission has ordered an insurer to pay Rs70 lakh plus interest and compensation after rejecting a claim over a BMW destroyed in a fire following a roadside puncture, citing reasonable precautions by the driver.
A Maharashtra consumer commission has ordered an insurer to pay out Rs70 lakh, plus interest and additional compensation, after rejecting a claim over a BMW that was destroyed by fire following a puncture on a highway.
The dispute centred on what happened late at night, when the car suffered a tyre puncture on a state highway and the driver could not find a mechanic immediately. According to the account before the commission, he parked the vehicle near a roadside dhaba, locked it and wound up the windows before leaving for the night. By morning, the car had been burnt out.
The insurer refused to settle the claim, arguing that the owner had breached the policy by leaving the vehicle unattended. It said the driver should have stayed with the car, taken it to a safer place, used the spare tyre, or arranged towing through another vehicle. The company also questioned the vehicle’s value and suggested that the cause of the fire was suspicious, pointing to burnt grass some distance from the car.
The commission disagreed, finding that the policy condition requiring proper precautions did not amount to a ban on leaving a broken-down car temporarily unattended. It said the driver’s decision to lock the car, close the windows and leave it beside a recognised roadside landmark was reasonable in the circumstances, especially given the time of night and the lack of help. The commission also said there was no evidence linking the decision to leave the vehicle with the fire itself, whose cause was never established.
On the compensation issue, the panel rejected the insurer’s attempt to reduce the car’s insured value at the settlement stage. It ordered payment of the insured declared value of Rs70 lakh, with 7% annual interest from the date the claim was first refused, along with Rs50,000 for mental agony and harassment and Rs25,000 towards legal costs, taking the total award to Rs70.75 lakh before interest.
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