Imagine your car suffers a tyre punctured on a deserted highway late at night, with no mechanic in sight. This happened with Ravikant S Patil, a BMW owner, who was driving on a state highway near Dhulkhed in Maharashtra. Patil parked his car by a roadside dhaba, locked the doors and returned home in another vehicle, hoping to retrieve it the next morning. To his shock, when he returned to the spot, the car was nothing more than a burn-out shell. And to add to his trouble, the insurance company refused to pay up, arguing that he should not have left the vehicle unattended.
The incident happened in 2012, and Patil fought a 14-year-long battle that has now ended with a consumer commission directing the insurer United India Insurance Company to pay over Rs 70 lakh, along with interest and compensation.
The incident took place on March 8, 2012, and Patil found his car completely burnt the next day.
United India insurance told him that leaving the vehicle unattended overnight violated the policy’s requirement to take reasonable precautions to prevent further loss.
But the consumer commission rejected the insurer’s argument, observing that the policy did not impose an absolute prohibition on leaving a broken-down vehicle unattended.
The commission held that Patil had taken reasonable precautions by parking the car safely off the road, locking it and securing its windows, noting that there was no conclusive evidence establishing a direct connection between the vehicle being left unattended and the fire.
It also observed that personal safety could not be compromised merely to guard a vehicle and ordered the insurer to pay the car’s insured declared value of Rs 70 lakh.
United India Insurance was also directed to pay Ra 50,000 for mental agony and harassment and Rs 25,000 towards litigation costs, taking the total payout to Rs 70.75 lakh, excluding interest.
