SC Delivers Split Verdict on Disciplinary Action to be Taken Against an Advocate-On-Record  ||  Centre to SC: Certain Provisions of Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 Not to be Acted Upon for Time Being  ||  SC Disposes of Petitions Seeking Access to Courtroom Proceedings through Virtual Links  ||  Delhi HC Directs Removal of 'Captain Blue' Mark in Plea by Manufacturer of ‘Captain Morgan’  ||  SC: Consumer’s Right to Protest Peacefully Without Falling Foul is a Corresponding Right  ||  SC Shows Inclination to Appoint a Commission of Inquiry to Enquire into Activities of Sports Federati  ||  SC: Subsequent Judgment that Overrules Earlier Judgment to Apply Retrospectively  ||  SC Expresses Reluctance to Transfer to Itself Petitions Challenging Anti-Conversion Laws of States  ||  Madras HC: Inspector General of Registration to Ensure No Society is Registered With a Caste Name  ||  SC: Union & ECI Given Time to Respond on Challenge to Conduct of Election Rules    

The Branch Manager, National Insurance Co. Ltd. Vs. Mousumi Bhattacharjee and Ors. - (Supreme Court) (26 Mar 2019)

Illness of encephalitis malaria through a mosquito bite cannot be considered as an accident

MANU/SC/0408/2019

Consumer

The present appeal raises an interesting question of law. The Court is tasked with determining whether a death due to malaria occasioned by a mosquito bite in Mozambique, constituted a death due to accident. The appeal by the insurer has been filed against the judgment of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, which upheld a decision of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. The State Commission, in first appeal, had upheld the award of a claim under an insurance policy.

To be bitten by a mosquito and be imbued with malaria parasite does involve an element of chance. But the disease which is caused as a result of the insect bite in the natural course of events cannot be regarded as an accident. Particularly, when the disease is caused in an area which is malaria prone. It has been postulated that where a disease is caused or transmitted in the natural course of events, it would not be covered by the definition of an accident. However, in a given case or circumstance, the affliction or bodily condition may be regarded as an accident where its cause or course of transmission is unexpected and unforeseen.

In a policy of insurance which covers death due to accident, the peril insured against is an accident: an untoward happening or occurrence which is unforeseen and unexpected in the normal course of human events.

The death of the insured in the present case was caused by encephalitis malaria. The claim under the policy is founded on the hypothesis that there is an element of uncertainty about whether or when a person would be the victim of a mosquito bite which is a carrier of a vector-borne disease. The submission that being bitten by a mosquito is an unforeseen eventuality and should be regarded as an accident cannot be accepted.

The insured was based in Mozambique. According to the World Health Organization's World Malaria Report 2018, Mozambique, with a population of 29.6 million people, accounts for 5% of cases of malaria globally. It is also on record that, one out of three people in Mozambique is afflicted with malaria. In light of these statistics, the illness of encephalitis malaria through a mosquito bite cannot be considered as an accident. It was neither unexpected nor unforeseen. It was not a peril insured against in the policy of accident insurance. The appeal is allowed and the impugned judgment and order of the National Commission set aside.

Tags : INSURANCE POLICY   ACCIDENT   MOSQUITO BITE  

Share :        

Disclaimer | Copyright 2025 - All Rights Reserved