Boggan v Motor Union Insurance Company

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 27 November 1922
• Date: 27 November 1922
• Court: High Court of Appeal (Ireland)

H. C.,

C. A.,

H. of L.,

Motor Union Insurance Co

and

Boggan

Riot or civil commotion - Loss of motor car - Theft by armed men.

The respondent insured a motor car with the appellant company against loss or damage by fire, burglary, house breaking, or theft. An exception in the policy provided that the insurers were not to be liable for "loss or damage arising during (unless it be proved by the insured that the loss or damage was not ccasioned thereby) or in consequence of . . . riot, civil commotion, military or usurped power." While the car was out on hire in County Wexford in November, 1920, the owner's chauffeur was held up by three or four armed men, who blindfolded and removed him, and took away the car. The police had been called in from a few outlying stations; motor cars had been commandeered and not returned, and receipts given in three cases; a post office motor cycle had been taken; there had been some raids for shot-guns and for mails; and early in January, 1921, martial law was proclaimed in the county. Held by the House of Lords, reversing the order of the High Court of Appeal for Ireland, which confirmed an order of the Court of Appeal in Southern Ireland, refusing to set aside the judgment awarded to the plaintiff by the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland on 25th of November, 1921, that the Courts below should have drawn the inference from the proved and admitted facts that at the time of the seizure of the motor car there was both civil commotion and riot. Per the Earl of Birkenhead: In dealing with a policy of insurance of a motor car, the relevant area within which one must ask whether or not there was...