UNITED INDIA INSURANCE CO LTD Vs. V GANGAPPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ONE Venkatesh is deceased in M. V. C. No. 44 of 1996. The petitioners are the parents. Claims Tribunal awarded compensation to the petitioners and directed the insurer of the tractor-trailer to pay compensation. The insurer is in appeal seeking avoidance of liability on the ground that the deceased is an unauthorised passenger in tractor-trailer.

(2.) THE tractor-trailer was loaded with sugarcane. According to the petitioners, the deceased was travelling as a loader and he had to unload the sugarcane at the factory. The owner of the tractor-trailer in the evidence states that the deceased is his nephew and not employed as a loader for the tractor-trailer.

(3.) THE inquest report prepared by the investigating Officer sometime immediately after the accident discloses that the deceased was travelling as a loader in the tractor-trailer. The Tribunal rejected the evidence of the owner and upheld the contention of the petitioner that deceased was a loader in the tractor-trailer.