Intoxication and Insurance Claims: Proving Driver Intoxication to Avoid Liability
The Supreme Court held that an insurer cannot deny an insurance claim by merely alleging driver intoxication without clear, credible, and convincing evidence.
Insurance claims are often decided not by what happened on the road, but by what the insurer can prove afterward. In Stronghold Insurance Company, Incorporated v. Interpacific Container Services and Gloria Dee Chong (G.R. No. 194328, 1 July 2015), the Supreme Court held that an insurer cannot escape liability under a motor vehicle policy simply by asserting that the driver was drunk. Intoxication must be established with evidence that is clear, credible, and convincing.
The accident, the policy, and the denied claim
Gloria Dee Chong owned a Fuso truck insured by Stronghold Insurance Company under Commercial Vehicle Policy No. 279675. The comprehensive motor car insurance policy, issued for a premium of P15,306.45, undertook to indemnify the insured against loss or damage to the vehicle and against liability for death
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