Planter fails in bid to force insurance firms to pay RM1mil in claims

The Court of Appeal ordered plantation owner V Kunasegaran to pay RM30,000 in costs to each of the four insurers – Berjaya Sompo Insurance Bhd, The Pacific Insurance Bhd, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Am Bhd, and Allianz General Insurance Company Bhd.

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has dismissed a plantation owner’s final appeal seeking to compel four insurance companies to pay nearly RM1 million under policies taken out on behalf of his employee, who died in a road accident.

A three-member bench chaired by Justice Firuz Jaffril said evidence before the trial court showed that the deceased, K Raja, was not wearing a crash helmet while riding a motorcycle.

Firuz also noted that Raja was riding the motorcycle without a licence and that the vehicle was not registered and had no road tax.

“These are all unlawful acts and therefore justified the insurance companies in repudiating the claims,” he said, adding that the sessions court’s findings were correct and had been affirmed by the High Court.

Firuz ordered V Kunasegaran to pay RM30,000 in costs to each of the four insurers – Berjaya Sompo Insurance Bhd, The Pacific Insurance Bhd, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Am Bhd, and Allianz General Insurance Company Bhd – totalling RM120,000.

Justices Nadzarin Wok Nordin and co-opted High Court judge Latifah Tahar also heard the appeal.

The facts of the case revealed that in 2017, Kunasegaran purchased personal accident policies valued at RM300,000 from Berjaya, RM300,000 from Pacific Insurance, RM150,000 from Takaful, and RM240,000 from Allianz, renewing them the following year.

Kunasegaran, 57, had nominated himself as the sole beneficiary but did not disclose to the insurers that he had purchased multiple policies for Raja.

Raja died in an accident at KM27, Jalan Taiping-Selama, in Perak, at about 1.03 pm, on Dec 14, 2018.

Kunasegaran filed claims with the insurers, which were rejected on the grounds that he had failed to disclose the multiple policies purchased on behalf of the deceased.

He subsequently filed a suit in the sessions court, calling seven witnesses, while the insurance companies presented five.

The trial judge, in her written grounds, stated that there was no eyewitness to the accident and that circumstantial evidence suggested the motorcycle Raja was riding could have skidded and crashed.

Raja was warded at the Taiping Hospital but died the following day due to severe brain injury.

Lawyers Razlan Hadri Zulfili and H Kishenatharo appeared for Takaful, while S Suresh, P Paanimalar, and K Suganthy represented Allianz. Tunku Farik Tunku Ismail acted for Pacific Insurance.

Chiew Zhe Sheng represented Berjaya Sompo, while Sean Teh and Shuroma Guha Thakura appeared for Kunasegaran.