Bala James Ngillari V. National Insurance Corporation Of Nigeria (1998)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

KUTIGI, J.S.C.

The plaintiff is the administrator of the estate of one Jesse James Ngillari, deceased, who died intestate in Maiduguri on 17/8/85. The defendant is a corporate body engaged in insurance business with its head office in Lagos and branches all over the country including Maiduguri.

On 1/3/84, the defendant’s agent in Maiduguri, one S. A. Onuh, in the course of his duties as such agent, approached the deceased in the plaintiff’s office. In the presence of the plaintiff, the agent advised the deceased to take out a combined Endowment/Life Insurance Policy with the defendant. Both the agent and the plaintiff assisted the deceased to complete the defendant’s proposal form which the agent brought along with him. The deceased at the request of the agent also submitted a typewritten additional statement which together with the duly completed proposal form were handed over to the agent. He read them over and after satisfying himself as to their contents, demanded the sum of N449.05 from the deceased as premium. The deceased was short of funds and it was the plaintiff who issued his personal cheque for the amount in favour of the defendant. The deceased was scheduled to attend a course at the College of Pharmacy, Yaba, Lagos and had before then arranged with his bankers to have his salary paid to him over there. The deceased and the agent therefore both agreed that the deceased should make a further payment of N2,694.30 being the total premium payable by the deceased up to the end of December, 1985 when the deceased was expected to have returned to Maiduguri. On the following day which was 2/3/84, the deceased paid this additional sum in cash to the agent. The agent acknowledged receipt on a plain typewritten sheet of paper duly signed by him (see Exhibit D). The agent undertook to bring an official receipt for all the monies collected from the deceased together with the policy certificate in three days’ time, when according to him, the cheque issued by the plaintiff would have been honoured or cleared. Neither the official receipt nor the policy certificate was ever received from the defendant or its agent That the deceased at all materials times believed the agent to be defendant’s agent, whose duty it was to prospect for clients for the defendant and that the deceased dealt with the agent as such. That the agent suggested and the deceased agreed, that the deceased should takeout a life policy for 30 years with effect from 1/3/84. That should the deceased die before the maturity date of 2014 A.D., the defendant would pay his estate the benefit of N50,000.00 with profit and should the deceased survive to maturity date, the said sum would be paid to him with profits.

After payment of premium as stated above to the agent, the plaintiff and the deceased did not hear anything again either from the agent or defendant until 29/11/84 when a letter (see Exhibit E.) was addressed to the deceased in care of plaintiffs office putting the deceased on notice that the agent S.A. Onuh was no longer in the employment of the defendant and that in future, the deceased should deal or pay his premium directly to the defendant’s office in Maiduguri. The deceased sent a reply on 15/12/84 informing the defendant that he had already in fact paid his premium up to and including December, 1985 to the agent and that he was still awaiting the official receipts and the policy certificate as well.

As stated above, the deceased died intestate on 17/8/85 and during the currency of the contract of insurance between him and the defendant. The plaintiff notified the defendant. The defendant in a letter 2/4/86 denied any contractual relationship with the deceased and have failed to pay the sum of N50,000.00 or any part thereof accruable to the estate of the deceased under the said contract of Insurance.

The plaintiff therefore went to court claiming the following reliefs as per paragraph 18 of his statement of claim:-

“a. N50,000.00 being the agreed sum payable as death benefit under the contract of insurance between the deceased and the defendant.

b. N5,000.00 as 10% interest payable on the agreed sum of N50,000.00 covering the period 21st April, 1986 to 21st April, 1997.

c. Payment of a further interest at the court’s rate of 10% per annum on the above total sum of N55,000.00 with effect from the date of judgment until final liquidation.”

The case for the defendant on the other hand is that on 21/3/84 at its head office in Lagos it actually received from its Maiduguri agent S.A. Onuh, the proposal form duly completed by the deceased, a medical report on the life of the deceased as well as his statutory declaration of age. It also admitted receiving payment of N49,05 being first installment of premium paid by the deceased. It however, denied any payment of N2,694.30 being made to it. That on 15/10/84 it mailed a letter (see Exhibit”1″) to the deceased from Lagos asking him to under-go a chest x-ray lest and to further complete Financial Questionnaire Form to enable the defendant assess deceased’s financial position in view of the magnitude of the sum assured, and that no reply was received from the deceased. The plaintiff denied receipt of the letter by the deceased. That there was no contract of insurance in this case because there was neither a policy document issued nor a letter of acceptance by the defendant, particularly when it sought without success for more information from the deceased to enable it accept or reject the proposal as the case may be.

At the trial, pleadings were filed and exchanged, The plaintiff testified for himself while two witnesses testified for and on behalf of the defendant. Thereafter counsel addressed the court. In a reserved and well considered judgment, the learned trial Judge. Ogunbiyi, J., held that the plaintiff proved his claims against the defendant when she concluded her judgment thus:-

“Accordingly, and in the final result all the plaintiffs claims in paragraph 18 succeed and in respect of which I make the following orders:-

(1) That the plaintiff as the administrator of the estate of the deceased, Mr. Jesse James Ngillari is entitled to the claims against the defendants as per paragraph 18 of his statement of claim as follows:-

(a) N50,000 being the agreed sum payable as death benefit under the contract of insurance between the deceased and the defendants.