In a city beset with
traffic problems, road accidents are on the increase. People certainly need insurance
protection to take care of the contingencies.
Yesterday, in yet another instance of violence targeted at senior
citizen in the city, Rohini Premkumari (67), a well-known oncologist, was found
murdered at her home in Egmore. Dr.
Rohini was apparently hit on her head with an iron rod, and her hands and legs
were tied with a rope; her mouth was closed with a medical tape, according to
police officials investigating the case. The victim’s relatives alleged that
Dr. Rohini had an argument a few days ago with a contractor who had reportedly
overcharged her for refurbishing her basement. The police is looking in to all probable
aspects of the gruesome murder, which has shocked the residents.
Murder is the killing of
another human being without justification or valid excuse, and it is especially
the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought. This
state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from
other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter. Most societies, from
ancient to modern, have considered murder a very serious crime deserving harsh
punishment. In most countries, a person convicted of murder is typically given
a long prison sentence, possibly a life sentence or when it is very gruesome,
death penalty.
There have been decisions
that a murder cannot be treated as an accidental death unless there are facts
to show that the perpetrators had no intention of killing the person. Often the Q (especially in Insurance
parlance) has been – is murder an accident ? By some explanations, the difference between a 'murder' which is not an
accident, and a 'murder' which is an accident depends on the proximity of the
cause of such murder. If the dominant
intention of the act of felony is to kill any particular person, then such
killing is not an accidental murder but is a murder simpliciter, while if the
cause of murder or the act ofmurder was originally not intended and the same
was caused in furtherance of any other felonious act then such murder is
accidental murder.
A couple of years back, in
Sept 2013, neurosurgeon Dr S D Subbiah was murdered in September 2013, it made
city headlines for weeks. Times of India Chennai edition dt 8.5.16 reported on
its 1st page an article titled ‘Insurers show fineprint, refuses to
pay’ stating - what has so far gone unreported is his family's struggle to get
an insurance claim. Here is the article
reproduced :
The insurance company with whom the doctor had taken a personal accident policy refused to pay up, citing murder as an exclusion in the fine print. After more than two years of fighting, the surgeon's widow got the insured sum of Rs 10 lakh in November 2015 after the insurance ombudsman ruled in her favour. On September 14, 2013, Dr Subbiah was hacked outside his workplace, Billroth Hospitals in RA Puram over a land dispute.He died nine days later. While the case dragged on, the private General Insurance Company not only refused to pay the insured sum of Rs 10 lakh, it also asked the doctor's wife to pay the insurance premium. The only solace was that Subbiah had taken another policy, from LIC. "LIC paid the money within15 days," Shanti said. In August 2015 she took up the matter with the insurance ombudsman of India. The ombudsman observed that the company was acting in contravention of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India's (IRDAI) rules with its Rs murder exclusion.' The General Insurer was asked to produce the IRDAI approval for the policy . "It was found they had modified the policy without IRDAI's approval," said outgoing ombudsman Virander Kumar. Since it was a personal accident claim, the insurer tried to repudiate on the grounds that death of the insured was not due to an accident. "Their contention was that the dominant and primary intention of the attackers was to murder the insured and it therefore comes within the ambit of ‘murder simplicitor' which is excluded under clause 4(g) relating to - culpable homicide' of the policy . We told them the above mentioned exclusion clause was removed from current PA policies. However, they refrained from informing the same to the policyholder," said the ombudsman in his report. While people talk about fineprints in Insurance contracts, have you ever tried to read (if not understand) the conditions on your air ticket – in earlier days, it was on glossy paper, where eyes would get strained in reading a line or two – now it is more of stating that the conditions are available on web – the same would be the case of many many commercial contracts. With regards – S. Sampathkumar
9th May 2016.
