MOSCOW, March 2 - RAPSI. The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals will hear on March 20 the appeal by British Gulf International Co. LTD against the court decision dismissing the recovery of $588,000 in insurance indemnity for 2008 air crash in Iraq from GUTA Insurance, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.ru) on Friday.
The company appealed against the Moscow Commercial Court's December 30 dismissal of its action.
According to British Gulf International Co. LTD, it entered into an insurance contract regarding the An-12 aircraft with GUTA-Insurance on April 20, 2008.
Under the contract, the insurance risks were defined in accordance with the standard aircraft insurance regulations implying that in the event of the aircraft's total loss the insurer shall indemnify it in full or replace the aircraft. The indemnity amounted to $600,000.
The plaintiff notified the defendant about the plane crash within 24 hours. On November 18, 2008, the defendant requested the documents necessary to decide whether the crash is the loss event and if it should pay the insurance indemnity. The plaintiff provided the requested documents to the defendant.
On June 1, 2010, GUTA informed the plaintiff it could not make a final decision on indemnification since it was not provided with the duly executed Final Report on AN-12 Plane Crash made by the Iraqi Civil Aviations Flights Safety Department.
The court ruled that the air crash should not be qualified as an insured event since the crashed aircraft was operated by a lower class pilot than required by the insurance contract. The court dismissed the claim because the An-12 was operated by a second class pilot whereas the contract implied the insured aircraft was to be operated by a first class pilot only.
Moreover the plaintiff failed to provide sufficient evidence in support of its claims.
The only proof of the insured aircraft's total loss was the final report of the An-12 air accident issued by the Iraqi civil aviation safety department on June 16, 2009.
