MOSCOW, July 4 (RAPSI) – The Moscow District Commercial Court will review on July 11 an appeal filed by QBE Corporate and five other foreign insurance companies against a ruling of a lower court refusing to recover $4 million paid in connection with Superjet 100 aicraft crash in Indonesia in May 2012, RAPSI learnt in the court on Tuesday.
On November 25, 2016, the Moscow Commercial Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by QBE Corporate, Starr Syndicate, Starr Insurance and Reinsurance, Muenchener Rueckversicherungrs-Gesellchaft AG, Dornoch and Catlin Insurance Company against Kapital Strakhovaniye insurance company. The case was being heard for the second time. On February 29, 2016, the Supreme Court overruled all lower courts and sent the case for rehearing.
On September 27, 2016, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition for rehearing of the lower courts’ rulings ordering twenty foreign insurers to pay $16 million to Kapital Strakhovaniye.
The Commercial Court of the Khanty-Mansi region in April 2015 granted a lawsuit filed by Russia’s Kapital Strakhovaniye against foreign insurance companies. The Eighth Commercial Court of Appeals and the West-Siberian District Federal Commercial Court upheld the ruling in July 2015 and March 2016 respectively.
Twenty-four companies were initially defendants in the case. However, due to partial payment of the debt, the plaintiff withdrew claims against some of them.
Kapital Strakhovaniye initially claimed $32.4 million in damages from the companies that provided insurance for 48 people on board. The sum was reduced to $16 million after partial payments were made.
General Insurance Corporation of India, Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A., UK Branch, Swiss Re Europe S.A., Starr Insurance and Reinsurance Limited (London) are named among defendants in the case. The lawsuit was filed back in June 2013.
The Moscow Commercial Court also heard another plane crash related suit. Sukhoi Company demanded $29.5 million in insurance payouts for the SSJ-100 from Kapital Strakhovaniye. In September 2013, the parties signed an amicable agreement under which the underwriter committed to pay the plaintiff $14.1 million in addition to the previous payments. The insurance company claimed that the insurance agreement on the plane was 95% reinsured in the Western market.
The airplane crashed on its first ever demonstration tour, across six Asian countries, over Indonesia on May 9, 2012. All people on board the plane, including eight Russian nationals, were killed. The plane crashed into Mount Salak at an altitude of 1.6 km. Investigation found that the disaster was caused by human error.
