Insurance agency asked to honour court ruling

Untours Insurance Agency filed a judicial protest against Elmo Insurance Agency requesting it to honour a court decision to pay damages over a traffic collision.

In the protest, Untours explained that a collision between Rachel McKay's car, insured by Untours, and Abdul Baser Dabia's car, insured by Elmo occurred in Mosta on January 27, 2003.

Following the collision, Untours filed a case before the Magistrates' Court against Dabia and, in a judgement handed down on July 9, 2004, Dabia was ordered to pay Untours Lm3,477 damages and Lm35 (including interest) to McKay, as well as the legal fees incurred.

On filing the case Untours sent a letter informing Elmo, as required by law. The letter was sent to Elmo because according to the Insurance Road Accident Report of the police, Elmo was listed as Dabia's insurance company.

Dabia's insurance cover was also registered at the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) on the strength of documentation issued by Elmo.

But now that the case had been decided, Elmo was trying to work its way around responsibilities taken on when it received the premium and issued Dabia's insurance documents. In fact, in a letter dated October 14, 2003, Elmo informed Untours that since Dabia did not have a legally valid driving licence, Elmo would not cover him.

But Untours claimed that Elmo should have carried out proper research before accepting the premium and issuing an insurance cover for Dabia.

Elmo should not be at an advantage because it did not carry out its job properly and because it issued documentation that misled the ADT to issue a road licence, which was potentially of prejudice to third parties. That was against the law.

Untours asked Elmo to honour the law and its responsibilities and held the company liable in any damages suffered.

A copy of the protest, signed by Dr Joseph Micallef Stafrace, was forwarded to the ADT and to the Malta Financial Services Authority.