Contractual Types of Damage Insurance
Contenido
Bajo la denominación genérica de Seguro contra Daños, la Ley española regula 8 tipos distintos de seguros:.
Los tres primeros: incendio, robo y transporte terrestre, son seguros de daños en sentido estricto, al interés asegurado recae sobre cosas concretas y determinadas; los otros cinco son seguros de patrimonio, en los que el interés que se asegura afecta al patrimonio general del asegura¬do y no a bienes concretos y determinados.
Fuera de los seguros contra daños regulados en la Ley hay otros que también entrarían en esa denominación genérica, así: los seguros agrícolas, los de automóviles en general y responsabilidad civil del cazador.
Fire Insurance
The Law defines it as that insurance contract by which the insurer undertakes, within the limits established in the law and in the contract, to compensate for damage caused by fire to the insured object.
Fire is considered to be the combustion and burning with a flame, capable of spreading, of an object or objects that were not intended to be burned at the place and time in which it occurs.
The insured assets must be described in the policy, the law in its art. 46 describes the goods that are included in the notion of furniture: things for ordinary or common use of the insured, his family members, dependents and other people who live with him, excluding, unless otherwise agreed, from the insurance coverage the damage caused by the fire to public or private movable securities, commercial papers, bank notes, precious stones and metals, artistic objects and other valuable objects that are found in the insured object even if their existence and destruction and deterioration are proven by the accident If it includes the damages caused by the adoption of measures by the authority or the insured to prevent, cut off or extinguish the fire, the costs of transportation or rescue of the insured objects and their disappearance, unless the insurer proves that they were stolen.
So-called indirect damages such as a change in the alignment of the damaged buildings, lack of rental or use, termination of the contract, suspension or cessation of work, lack of profits or any other similar damage are not covered.
The obligation to indemnify is imposed when the fire is caused by a fortuitous event, ill will of strangers and negligence of the person or of the persons for whom civil liability is incurred, but not those caused by fraud or serious fault of the insured, and whenever the destruction or deterioration of the objects on which the insured interest falls occurs in the place described in the policy, unless its transfer had been previously accepted by the insurer.
This type of insurance can also cover, through a premium, locative risk and neighbor appeal. Thus, locative risk refers to both the liability of the insured, the tenant of the damaged building, towards its owner, and the liability of the owner towards the tenants, or even towards third parties.
The risk called neighbor appeal is that related to civil liability, a consequence of the actions that a third party may take against the insured, derived from the spread of the fire.
Regarding the duration of the fire insurance contract, it will be regulated in the general conditions; if it is stipulated for a period upon expiration, it will be understood to be tacitly extended for a period not exceeding one year.
Insurance against theft
It is defined as that insurance contract by which the insurer undertakes, within the limits established by law and in the contract, to compensate for damages derived from the illegitimate theft by third parties of the insured items.
The coverage includes the damage caused by the commission of the crime in any of its forms. Compensation is extended not only to the value of the interest in the insured property, but also to the damages derived from the commission of the crime, which may be defined more or less broadly in the policy.
Unless otherwise agreed, extraordinary risks insured by the Compensation Consortium are excluded. Losses caused by serious negligence of the insured, the policyholder or the people who depend on them or who live with them are also excluded, as well as those that occur outside the place described in the policy or that occur during transportation, unless both circumstances have been expressly consented to by the insurer.
Finally, abandonment is allowed, if it is stated in the contract, that is, the insured, when the object is not found within a period, has the right to demand the entire insured sum in exchange for ceding to the insurer his rights over the object of the insured interest that has been recovered.
Land Transport Insurance
In Spain the art. 54 of the Insurance Contract Law defines it as that contract by which the insurer undertakes, within the limits established in the law and in the contract, to compensate for material damage that may be suffered during or as a consequence of the transportation of the goods carried, the means used or other insured objects.
In the case of combined transport, the Insurance Contract Law applies if the land route is the main one. In other cases, the discipline of maritime or air transport applies.
The legitimacy for contracting insurance extends to the commission agent and transportation agencies.
The coverage begins, unless otherwise agreed, from the moment the goods are delivered to the carrier and ends when they are delivered to the recipient at the destination. It is possible to agree to extend the insurance to the risks that affect the goods from the moment they leave the warehouse or the shipper's address until they enter the warehouse or address of the recipient, and even cover the temporary storage of the goods and the immobilization of the vehicle or its change during the trip due to incidents specific to transport.
The following are the characteristics of this insurance contract:
The duration of the contract can be for a specific period of time or for a trip, establishing an expiration period of 6 months for claiming damages after the end of the contract.
With respect to the payment of compensation, the insured will not lose his or her right to compensation for the incident when the means of transportation, the itinerary or the terms of the trip have been altered or the trip has taken place at a time different from that planned, as long as the modification is not attributable to the insured.
The compensation of the contract is governed by the following rules:.
Finally, we can point out some special transportation insurance, insurance that is practiced in special policies:.
Loss of Profits Insurance
It is regulated as that insurance contract by which the insurer undertakes, within the limits established in the law and in the contract, to compensate the insured for the loss of economic performance that could have been achieved in an act or activity if the incident described in the contract had not occurred.
This type of insurance may be concluded as an autonomous contract or added as an agreement to another of a different nature.
This insurance covers risks affecting one or several lucrative operations predetermined in the policy, or falling on the activity of a commercial company, insuring the loss of profits and general expenses that the owner of the company must continue to bear when it is totally or partially paralyzed, as a result of events determined in the contract.
In the event that loss of profit insurance and damage insurance coexist on the same object, but with a different insurer, the insured must notify each of the insurers of the existence of the other insurance.
The compensation to be paid according to law, unless otherwise agreed, will be:.
When the contract only has as its object the loss of profits, the parties may not predetermine the amount of compensation.
Surety insurance
The law defines it as that insurance contract by which the insurer undertakes, in the event of non-compliance by the policyholder with its legal or contractual obligations, to compensate the insured as compensation or penalty for property damage suffered, within the limits established by law or in the contract. Any payment made by the insurer must be reimbursed by the policyholder.
In short, it is a contract stipulated by the policyholder to guarantee compliance with certain obligations contracted with the insured.
The modalities of this insurance are: security insurance for advance amounts for homes; surety insurance in favor of the public Administration, as well as those that have a contractual origin, such as those related to works or those required to exercise a profession: insurance broker.
There has been some doctrinal sector that has denied it the nature of insurance, attributing to it the legal nature of an insurance bond. Today, the majority of doctrine is inclined to point out that we are dealing with an insurance contract, something that has been legally reaffirmed, when the Law includes it as a type of damage insurance.
Credit Insurance
By the credit insurance contract, the insurer is obliged, within the limits established by law and in the contract, to compensate the insured for the final losses experienced as a result of the definitive insolvency of its debtors.
The cases in which the definitive insolvency of the debtor will be deemed to exist will be:
However, after 6 months from the insured's notification to the insurer of non-payment of the credit, the latter will pay the insurer 50% of the agreed coverage, on a provisional basis and on account of later final settlement.
The amount of compensation will be determined according to a percentage of the final loss, which must be established in the policy, for which purpose the expenses incurred by the recovery efforts, procedural expenses and any others expressly agreed upon will be added to the amount of the unpaid credit. This percentage will not include the benefits of the insured, nor will it be less than 50% of the final loss.
Credit insurance was introduced in Spain in 1929, through the foundation of Crédito y Caución. The Budget Law for 1990 liberalized the contracting of export credit risks, which can be covered by any insurance entity authorized for operations in the field of credit insurance and surety, with the State maintaining the assumption of certain risks: market prospecting, attendance at fairs, exchange differences, bank guarantees, works and works abroad, investments abroad, credits to the buyer in foreign currency and others that can be covered in foreign currency.
Civil Liability Insurance
Through civil liability insurance, the insurer is obliged, within the limits established by law and in the contract, to cover the risk of the insured incurring the obligation to compensate a third party for damages caused by an event provided for in the contract for the consequences of which the insured is civilly responsible, in accordance with the law.
But, despite the name, not all civil liability will be covered. Thus, civil liability derived from fraud on the part of the insured is excluded. Only liability arising from fault or liability arising from damage caused accidentally or involuntarily to things or people is insured. At the same time, it covers beyond the limits of its own civil liability, leaving the company responsible for the legal expenses corresponding to the defense of the insured, subject to the provision that said defense be carried out with lawyers and experts appointed by it.
The insurer is always obliged to assume the debt of the insured up to the maximum limit of its guarantee (sum insured), or to a limited extent, if the insurance was agreed in this way.
In addition to paying the premium and notifying the insurer of the loss, the insured in this modality imposes other obligations:
Non-compliance normally results in the loss of the insured's rights.
The insurer's service consists of paying, within the limits of the contract, the monetary compensation that the insured must satisfy as civil liability to the injured third party. The owner of the right is the insured, and not the third party, who is not a party to the contract.
The injured party will have direct action against the insurer to demand compliance with the obligation to compensate, an action that passes to his heirs.
The insurer has action to repeat against the insured in the event that the damage or loss caused to the third party is due to the latter's willful conduct.
Legal Defense Insurance
This modality is incorporated into Spanish legislation by the law of December 19, 1990. It is defined as that contract by which the insurer undertakes to take charge of the expenses that the insured may incur as a result of his intervention in an administrative, judicial or arbitration procedure and to provide him with judicial or extrajudicial assistance services derived from the insurance coverage.
The following are outside the coverage of this insurance: the payment of fines as compensation for the expenses caused by possible sanctions imposed on the insured by the administrative or judicial authorities will not apply to the legal defense claimed for civil liability insurance, or the legal defense of travel assistance or that which deals with litigation or risks due to the use of ships or maritime vessels.
The law requires that the policy include the right to free choice of lawyer and attorney and provide for a procedure to resolve differences between the insurer and the insured.
Large Risk Insurance
They are considered great risks according to the Law:.
Other damage insurance not included in the L.C.S.
Compulsory insurance is characterized by: