Death Caused by Mosquito Bites Not Accident, Can’t Claim Insurance: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court ruled that a death caused by a mosquito bite is not an “accident” and so is not insurable under the ‘accident’ insurance.

A Single-Judge Bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya dismissed the petition filed by deceased’s mother seeking to quash the letter of the Insurance Company dated September 09, 2022 in which the company stated that there are unable to admit its liability on account of the cause of death of the petitioner’s son.

“Death is undoubtedly sad, however, the Insurance Policy and the precedents on the subject do not permit interpreting any disease caused by a mosquito bite as an accident,” the court added.

The petitioner is Chayan Mukherjee’s mother. He was serving in the Indian Army. He died on December 20, 2021 in the Command Hospital, Kolkata. He was admitted to a hospital on November16, 2021 after developing certain post-surgical complications arising from a knee injury and was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease while undergoing treatment at Command Hospital. He developed high fever on December 12, 2021 and diagnosed with dWengue NS1 Ag positive.

His mother lodged a claim with the United India Insurance Company after the death of her son. The company refused the claim on the grounds that the cause of death was “non-accidental” and was hence not covered under the policy.

She challenged the refusal of the Insurance Company and prayed to quash the letter.

The Counsel representing the petitioner submitted that her claim falls within the Insurance Policy which was specifically made for defense personnel and should be distinguished from a policy made for a civilian. Further, it had been stated that primary cause of death was entirely accidental as the petitioner’s son could not have foreseen that he would be afflicted with Dengue in the Command Hospital.

The Counsel for Insurance Company relied on the “Renewal of MOU between IA and SBI Bank” for a period of 3 years. The Counsel highlighted clause 5 of the document which deals with “Accident Insurance” to submit that the cause of death in the present case is not an accident as defined under the said clause.

The court after hearing both parties stated, “The Personal Accident Insurance Policy of the petitioner’s son must be seen in the factual context of the definition of accident that Death or Disability must result solely and directly from an accident caused by an external, violent and visible means. The causation must necessarily involve an accident that causes death. However, in petitioner’s case it is Mosquito bite (accident) that causes dengue which led to death.”

The court also reviewed the deceased’s health history and discovered that the direct cause of death was dengue hemorrhagic fever as well as end-stage renal failure.

The Court concluded that the petitioner’s son’s death could not be attributed solely to dengue or viewed as the sole and direct contributory factor resulting in the petitioner’s son’s death because the Medical Certificate revealed that the direct cause of death was both dengue and end-stage renal disease IgA Nephropathy.

The court further reviewed the wording of the Accident Insurance Policy and noted that it clearly covered snake bites, high altitude illness, and high altitude pulmonary edema, but it excluded other types of insect bites.

Justice also referred to the data of the National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control; there were 5166 Dengue cases in 2020 and 8264 in 2021 in West Bengal. According to the data that there were a total of 193245 dengue cases and 346 dengue deaths in India in 2021.

“Specialised data in relation to Dengue shows that India features as one of the countries in the risk zone and Dengue is the 46th leading cause of death in the country,” the court added.

Lastly, the court relied on the case of Branch Manager, National Insurance Company Limited vs. Mousumi hattacharjee.

Accordingly, after all the observations made, the court dismissed the plea.