In Brief
A man obtained a home loan insurance policy covering accidental death. While working in Mozambique, he contracted malaria from a mosquito bite and died. His heirs claimed the insurance payout, arguing the death was accidental. Lower consumer forums and the National Commission sided with the heirs. The Supreme Court reversed this decision, holding that a disease contracted in the natural course of events—even in an endemic region—cannot be classified as an accident. The Court found malaria was neither unexpected nor unforeseen in Mozambique, where one in three people suffer from it, and therefore was not a peril covered under the accident insurance policy.
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