BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER WARANGAL
Present: Sri President
Sri Member
AND
Smt. V.J.
Thursday the 10th July, 2008.
CONSUMER COMPLAINANT NO. 44/2007
Between:
V.Edukondalu,
S/Age: 50 years, Subedari,
Warangal District.
… Complainant
AND
M/
Rep.by
J.P.N. Road,
Warangal District.
… Opposite Party
Counsel for the Complainant :: Sri.
Counsel for the Opposite : Sri.
This complaint coming for final hearing before this Forum, the Forum pronounced the following Order.
: ORDER ::
per
The brief averments contained in the complaint filed by the complainant are as follows:
01. The case of the complainant is that the complainant is the owner of lorry bearing No. AP11W 5874, which was insured with Opposite Party on 03-02-2005 when the lorry was proceeding to The opposite party appointed Surveyors and they inspected the officials and submitted their reports. After assessing the loss the opposite party did not settle the claim, to the surprise of the complainant the opposite party addressed a letter on 12-06-2006 stating that they have settled the claim for an amount of Rs.1,74,160/-. There is no basis for the opposite party to settle claim for Rs.1 The act of the opposite party is only arbitrary but also against the established norms of settlement of claim and amount offered by opposite party is far less with a delay of one year four months, which the amounts to deficiency of service. On 15-12-2005 the complainant sold the wreck of the vehicle for Rs.75,000/-, the complainant is entitled to receive an amount of Rs.3,75,000/- from opposite party, then he filed this complaint praying to direct the opposite party of Rs.3,75,000/-.
Opposite Party filed the Written Version contending in brief as follows:
02. The opposite party filed his Written Version stating that, the amount of Rs.1,74,160/- offered towards settlement of claim was reasonable and as per the norms and established procedure of settling the claim and as such the contention of the complainant is not tenable and the same is liable to be rejected. opposite party further submits that the Chennai Divisional Office VIII of National Insurance Company Limited issued a policy Lorry bearing No.AP11W 5874, which was valued from 14-11-2004 to 13-11-2005 and the said policy was issued on certain terms and conditions. After the receipt of information of incident, the office has deputed a Surveyor to assess the damage caused to the lorry and they assessed the damage and submitted report. The Chennai Office offered an amount of Rs.1 As per the procedure, the complainant has to sign on the discharge voucher, The Chennai Divisional Office VIII addressed a letter dated 12-06-2006 to the complainant requesting him to send the consent letter and discharge voucher but till 18-02-2007 the Chennai Office did not receive any response from the complainant and as such the claim was closed and it was intimated to the complainant vide register letter dated 19-02-2007. The opposite party arranged Surveyor for the Final Survey Report and he submitted his estimation. Taking into consideration of facts and circumstances, after deducting the Policy excess, the salvage value of the vehicle and the wreck value of the vehicle, the Chennai Divisional Office was settled the claim for Rs.1,74,000/- the settlement of the claim amount of Rs.75,000/- was fetched for the sale of wreck is far less than the actual value of the wreck and the complainant in order to get more amounts from the opposite party is falsely contending that he has received an amount of Rs.75,000/- by way of sale of the wreck. The Chennai Divisional Office has offered to pay an amount of Rs.1,74,160/- to the complainant after thorough scrutiny and amount offered by the said office is reasonable and the contention of the opposite party is that the insurance is liable to pay an amount of Rs.1,74,160/- and requests this Forum dismissal of the case for other amounts.
03. The complainant in support of his claim filed his Affidavit in the form of chief examination and marked Exs.A-01 to A-09. On behalf of opposite party Sri
04. Now the point for consideration is whether the complainant is entitled to get an amount of Rs.3,75,000/- to the complainant towards damages caused to the vehicle with pendentelite interest @ 18% P.A. from 03-02-05 till its realization, Rs.50,000/- to the complainant towards damages and award litigation expenses of Rs.10,000/- and with other
05. After arguments of the both side counsels, our reasons are like this. It is true that as per the Surveyors Final Report of the opposite party after he thorough estimation, on the basis of the estimation of the Surveyor the opposite party offered to the complainant to pay an amount of Rs.1,74,160/- but the complainant has refused, and filed this case before this Forum. The complainant rightly refused to receive the same amount because the lorry was set fire only by extremists but not any rash and negligent driving of the lorry driver and further the Surveyor estimated the cost of the lorry is very much low i.e. an amount of Rs.1,74,160/-, so the prayer of the complainant is very much reasonable i.e. the opposite party has to pay an amount of Rs.3,75,000/- and further there is a cited judgment of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, New Delhi 1997 (2) CPR 225 (NC) in National Insurance Company Limited – Appellant V/s. Rajasthan Tube Manufacturing Company Limited held that Consumer Protection Act, 1986 – Sections 12 & 17 – Insurance Claim – Damage to stock, goods, machines & furniture lying in factory due to rain – Risk was covered under policy – Surveyor assessed loss at Rs.14,16,568/- - Insurance Company paid Rs.9,54,251/- and claimed that amount accepted in full & final settlement of claim - Amount was unilaterally reduced – Insurance Company did not file discharge voucher to support its plea that amount was accepted by Complainant as full & final settlement – State Commission was justified in holding that amount of Rs.9,54,251/- was not accepted by Complainant in full & final settlement of claim.
The above cited judgment is applicable to the complainant because the insurance paid only Rs.9,54,251/- but as per the Surveyor assessed report that the insurance has to pay an amount of Rs.14,16,568/- in the present case also the Insurance Surveyor assessed the loss of the Lorry an amount of Rs.1,74,160/- as cost of Rs.4,50,000/-. So the above cited judgment is applicable to the complainant against the opposite party for the above judgment is it is clear that the full and final settlement amount has to be paid by the opposite party to the complainant, so on the basis of the above judgment we come to the conclusion that the opposite party has to pay the entire amount i.e. an amount of Rs.3
For the foregoing reasons given by us, we come to the conclusion that the complainant is entitled to get an amount of Rs.3 WHAT RELIEF:- The first point is decided in
In the result this complaint is allowed and we direct the opposite party to pay an amount of Rs.3 Seventy Five Thousand Only) interest @ 7.5% per annum from the date of filing of this complaint (i.e. 04-06-2007) till the realization, we refused to award damages and we award an amount of Rs.500/- (Rupees Five Hundred Only) to the complainant towards costs.
A month’s time is granted to the Opposite Party for the compliance of the order.
(Dictated to the Stenographer, transcribed by him, corrected and pronounced by us in the open Forum today the 10th July, 2008.)
Member President,
District Consumer Forum, Warangal.
APPENDIX OF EVIDNECE
WITNESSES EXAMINED
ON BEHALF OF O.P.
Affidavit of complainant filed Affidavit of O.P. filed
[
EXHIBITS MARKED
ON BEHALFOF COMPLAINANT
01. Ex.A-1 is the true copies of F.I.R. & Letter, dated 03-02-2005.
02. Ex.A-2 is the true copy of Panchanama, 04-02-2005.
03. Ex.A-3 is the Letter from 12-06-2006.
04. Ex.A-4 is the Certificate of the Warangal, 15-12-2005.
05. Ex.A-5 is the true copy of Certificate of Registration, 5-10-2002.
06. Ex.A-6 is the true copy of letter from opposite party, 12-06-2006.
07. Ex.A-7 is the true copy of National Insurance Company Ltd., Policy No.501602/31/04/ 6325029.
08. Ex.A-8 is the true copy of Schedule of Premium of National Insurance Company Limited.
09. Ex.A-9 is the true copy of Certificate of Insurance of Goods carrying (Other than) Public Carriers.
EXHIBITS MARKED
ON BEHALF OF OPPOISTE PARTY
01. Ex.B-1 is the Original Private and Confidential Motor (Final) Survey Report and Photographs.
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