'Date Of Repudiation Of Claim The Cordial Knot To Determine Limitation, Mere Requests For Reconsideration Won't Grant A Fresh Lease Of Limitation': Madras High Court

Once a claim has been expressly rejected by the opposite party, further requests to reconsider the same by the other party will not stop the running of limitation, the Madras High Court has held while passing a summary judgement dismissing the money suit filed by Shriram EPC Ltd. The validity of the Marine Insurance policy taken by the plaintiff and Steel Authority of India with Bharathi AXA General Insurance Company was valid from 09.12.2008 to 08.01.2011. The plaintiff lodged a claim of over 11 crores with the first defendant, i.e, Bharathi AXA General Insurance Company, along with supporting documents. The affidavit filed by the respondent along with the preliminary objection on the grounds of limitation affirmed that the cargo of the plaintiff was insured with the defendant, however, the policy claim of the plaintiff was repudiated by the Insurance Company on 17.05.2011 itself due to breach of warranties. Though the plaintiff's claim is that the Insurance Company sought the court judgment and other documents related to the accident in subsequent correspondence, the company makes its stand clear in that same letter as given below : "We once again inform you that the surveyors had assessed the loss for an amount of Rs.24,29,450/- on the basis of documents submitted to us as well to other Government Authorities but because of the breach of warranties applicable to the policy, the same was not admissible and hence the decision was communicated vide our letter dated 17th May, 2011."