Kathmandu. The Nepal Insurance Authority (NEA) has directed the insurance companies to pay the insurance claim on a third party basis in case of an employee who died in an excavator accident. NEA has directed Nepal Insurance Company to provide compensation as per the demand of the insured Jwala Construction Service.
On March 22, 2018, a JCB excavator (Ba 2 Ka 6811) of Jwala Nirman Service met with an accident while digging a road at Batase of Sindhupalchowk. The excavator helper Lal Bahadur Tamang, 21, who was injured in the accident, died while undergoing treatment.
Nepal Insurance Company had refused to pay the amount to the deceased even though the insurance company had paid the amount for the loss of the vehicle. The insurer had argued that since the deceased was an ancillary employee of the same machine, he was not included in the third party and the insurance policy did not cover him.
The authority has falsified the company’s argument in its judgment dated June 1, 2082.
According to the police report and the clarification of the operator, the deceased was signaling outside the machine when the accident took place. He died after being hit by a machine after a landslide fell from above. The authority believes that the person outside the machine should be considered as a third party.
The Motor Vehicles and Transport Management Act, 2049 BS has made third-party insurance mandatory. Therefore, the authority is of the view that the right to compensation guaranteed by the prevailing law cannot be curtailed by mentioning any point in the insurance policy.
The purpose of third-party insurance is to protect the legal liability of the insured. Therefore, even though the deceased was an employee, he could not be deprived of the benefit of a third party as he was out of the machine at the time of the accident.
The authority has cautioned the company about such ambiguity, saying that the third party has mentioned zero in place of the insurance premium while issuing the policy, but the risk is protected.
