Unloading from a truck

An interesting case I recall from a few years back. We had issued a specific marine policy ( Trip policy) covering the import of a machine from Europe to the insured’s premises in India. Interestingly, the address of the insured’s office which was stated in the policy was on the third floor of a particular building,

The policy was subject to ICC-A 1982 clauses and at the insured’s request, we had agreed to covering loading and unloading risks ( initial loading and final unloading) as well. The ocean voyage went off without any mishap but when the carrying truck reached the building housing the insured’s premises, the accident happened. When? As the machine was being lifted from the truck using slings and for unloading at the insured’s premises on the third floor, the sling gave way and the machine crashed to the ground. As per the policy condition there was to be an independent supervision of the unloading process and the surveyor too was present.

The assured reported a claim and after the inspection and loss assessment, the initial reaction was that the claim would not be admissible, since the transit to the named destination had been safely completed and this was not an unloading but a case of the machine being lifted up to the third floor. Very quickly, the claim handlers on a closer scrutiny of the policy conditions & the common meaning of ‘unloading’ opined that the claim was tenable and the claim was paid.

The final destination named in the policy was the third floor of that particular building. Further, the risk of unloading was covered specifically in the policy. Here the dictionary meaning of ‘unloading’ needs to be seen. Unload or unloading is defined in all English dictionaries as ‘ removal of goods, cargo,etc from a vehicle, conveyance…’. The general perception that unloading would mean removal of goods from a vehicle and bringing it down to the ground was shattered. Unloading could also involve lifting the goods from the vehicle on to a higher floor.