Adeyemi Adebanjo
THE decision by Justice Sonia Akinbiyi of an Ogun State High Court sitting in Ijebu-Ode ordering Great Nigeria Insurance PLC to pay Ade Distribution and Investment Company Limited a total of Sixteen Million, Fifty-Six Thousand Naira and Three Hundred and Seventy Naira (N16,056, 370.00).has obviously not gone down well with the insurance company as it has filed an appeal challenging the verdict of the court.
Justice Akinbiyi had on 5th July 2018 awarded the aforementioned sum as the amount due to the Ade Distribution and Investment Limited both as the cost of the insurance policy it undertook with Great Nigeria Insurance PLC as well as damages assessed by the court.
Delivering judgment in suit no HCJ/129/2023 between Ade Distribution and Investment Limited (claimant) and Great Nigeria Insurance PLC and Alhaji Femi Oluderu (trading under the name and style of Fikemot Nigeria Enterprises (first and second defendants, respectively), Justice Akinbiyi held that the second defendant is an agent of the first defendant. The court also took judicial notice of the fact that the claim by the claimant that his warehouse and corporate office was raided by robbers on 14 January 2013 wherein goods worth Fifteen Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty-Six Thousand, Five Hundred and Seventy Naira (N15,956,570) were carted away by armed robbers was not controverted by the either of the defendants.
The court, therefore, held that the claimant was entitled to be paid by the first defendant the loss suffered as a result of the armed robbery incident at his warehouse and corporate office pursuant to the burglary insurance policy no BP/6000038/12/IJ entered into by the claimant and the first defendant.
Justice Akinbiyi also held that the claimant has fulfilled all the conditions precedent as required by Section 50 of the Insurance Act.
Eighteen-Eleven Media reports that the issues leading to the institution of the suit started in the latter part of 2012 when the Chief Executive Officer of Ade Distribution and Investment Company Limited, Bella Abiodun, was approached by the second defendant when the construction of his warehouse and corporate office was nearly completed urging him to insure the edifice and goods kept therein with the first defendant (Great Nigeria Insurance PLC).
The policy documents were later issued and sent to the claimant through the second defendant via its letter dated 20th December 2012, and based on this development, the claimant paid the sum of One Hundred and Seventeen Thousand, Nine Hundred and Thirty-Eight Naira (N117,938.00) to the second defendant, while the sum of Ninety-Seven Thousand, One Hundred and Thirty-Five Naira (N97,125.00) was to cover the premium for the burglary insurance policy.
In his Statement of Claim dated 13 September 2013, Bella Abiodun stated that following the robbery incident that occurred on 14 January 2013 leading to loss of goods, he informed the first defendant and also sent a Claim Form. He averred that the first defendant, via a letter dated 14 January 2013, not only sympathised with him but equally informed him of the claim number as well as notified him of the appointment of M/S Equity Trust Loss Adjusters Limited as Loss Adjusters to investigate and adjust the claim on the first defendant behalf.
Bella Abiodun further averred that despite making available to the first defendant a Police report, he was surprised when Great Nigeria Insurance PLC turned around full circle to deny liability on the ground that the claimant did not pay the premium on the insurance policy before the robbery incident.
Bella Abiodun also told the court that subsequent correspondence to Great Nigeria Insurance PLC was not replied to until his counsel wrote to the company. He said in Great Nigeria Insurance PLC’s reply dated 17 July 2013 that it not only denied liability under the principle of ‘No Premium No Cover’ but also denied the second defendant being its agent.
Bella Abiodun, in conclusion, averred that the action of Great Nigeria Insurance PLC put him and his business in a disadvantaged position and at great risk and he could no longer meet his obligations to his numerous customers, which affected his business negatively.
However, the second defendant (Great Nigeria Insurance PLC), in its Statement of Defence dated 14 February 2014, insisted that the second defendant was a canvassing agent who was expected to comply with all the registration and renewal of registration requirements of the National Insurance Commission and that it did not confer the second defendant with the authority to act as its agent for the purpose of collecting premium in his personal name.
The insurance company further stated that the claimant was expected to pay the agreed sum of Ninety-Seven Thousand, One Hundred and Thirty-Five Naira (N97,125.00) as a condition precedent to the attachment of the risk insured prior to the 20th of November 2012, and consequently the insured risk.
Great Nigeria Insurance PLC also averred that the claimant did not pay any premium to it prior to the date when the risk was purportedly insured against was expected to attach and that the premium in respect of the risk was purportedly paid by the claimant vide a Diamond Bank issued in the name of the second defendant who acted as the agent of the claimant.
The insurance company maintained that the second defendant demonstrated utmost bad faith by tendering the premium due to it on the risk purportedly insured against after the alleged burglary incident by delivering a First City Monument Bank (FCMB) cheque at his office for the payment of the premium in respect of the alleged insured risk.
The company further stated that the said cheque was not given value by the second defendant’s bank until the 18 of January 2013 and that it was, therefore, not liable to the claimant.
Justice Akinbiyi ruled otherwise.
However, not satisfied with the decision of the court which held that it was indeed liable and should pay the claimant a total of Sixteen Million, Fifty-Six Thousand Naira and Three Hundred and Seventy Naira (N16,056, 370.00), Great Nigeria Insurance PLC filed an appeal at the Ibadan division of the Court of Appeal dated 11 February 2019, maintaining that Justice Akinbiyi overlooked its evidence that the claimant (now respondent) did not pay premium in advance prior to the commencement date of the Contract of Insurance; that the cheque the respondent issued dated 3rd January 2013, issued 13 days after receipt of the contract, did not comply with the mandatory statutory requirement prescribed in Section 50(1) of Insurance Act on advance payment of insurance premium.
It also emphasized that Justice Akinbiyi acted on the wrong principles of law in arriving at the decision on the status of the second defendant (now second respondent) as an insurance agent.
On his part, Barrister Wale Ogundare, Esq. and Ayomide Ojeifo, Esq. of Wale Ogunade Chambers, OPIC Plaza, Isheri, Ogun State, Bella Abiodun, insists the trial judge was right in holding that the second defendant (now second respondent) acted as an agent of the insurance company when he related with it throughout the entire process of taking out an insurance policy with Great Nigeria Insurance PLC.
He also pointed out that an agency relationship can be created by agreement, ratification, necessity, estopped by implication of law and by presumption of law in the case of cohabitation.
“My Lords, it is our humble submission that by virtue of the second respondent’s entire Acts from negotiation to receipt of payment of the premium, the application (Great Nigeria Insurance PLC) is estopped from claiming that the second respondent is not an agent of their as found out by the trial court and so we urge my Lords to so find and hold”, Ogunade submitted.
Eighteen-Eleven Media reports that the matter was billed for hearing on 8th October 2024 at the Ibadan division of the Court of Appeal but the court did not sit. No new date has been fixed for the hearing as of press time.
Eighteen-Eleven Media