HARI & CO Vs. ORIENTAL INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Complaint under Sec. 21 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short 'the Act') alleges deficiency in service in denial of a legitimate insurance claim of ?3,19,56,008/-by the Opposite Party in respect of the Standard Fire and Special Perils Policy (in short, the 'Policy') issued by the Opposite Party.

(2.) The facts, in brief, are that the Complainant is a Customs Public Bonded Warehouse dealing in timber under Sec. 57 of the Customs Act, 1962 with a license issued by the Assistant Commissioner of Customs. Under this license warehouse keepers of the Customs Public Bonded Warehouse are required to insure the goods against various risks by subscribing to insurance policies in the name of President of India through the concerned Customs Officers. Accordingly, the Complainant had obtained a Standard Fire and Special Perils Policy from Opposite Party No.1. Between February 2014 and April 2014, timber logs were imported by M/s Saudagar Enterprises and M/s Vel Murugan Timber Industries from Myanmar and were kept in the warehouse of the Complainant. On 9/9/2014 around 2:30 PM a fire incident occurred in the warehouse which caused extensive damage. An FIR No.322 of 2013 dtd. 12/9/2014 was lodged and the Opposite Party intimated by e-mail on 9/9/2014 and letter dtd. 10/9/2014. The Opposite Party appointed a Surveyor namely, M/s J. B. Boda Insurance Surveyors and Loss Assessors Pvt. Ltd. who inspected the site and submitted a report dtd. 8/5/2015 assessing the claim @ ?3,19,56,008/- after making adjustments for salvage and conditional average. The Opposite Party vide the reputation letter dtd. 23/6/2016 repudiated the claim against which the Complainant is before this Commission with the following prayer:

(3.) The Complaint was resisted by way of a reply by the Opposite Party