Cooper v General Accident, Fire, and Life Assurance Corporation Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1922
• Date: 01 January 1922
• Court: High Court of Appeal (Ireland)

K. B. D.,

C. A.,

S. I.,

H. C. A. I.,

H. L.,

Cooper

and

General Accident, Fire, and Life Assurance Corporation, Ltd.

Loss of motor car -Riot or civil commotion - Onus of proof -Inference of fact - Power of Court of Appeal to draw inference from proved facts.

The plaintiff insured his motor car with the defendant company. The policy contained an exception of "loss or damage occasioned through riot or civil commotion occurring within the land limits of Ireland." The car was stolen in circumstances the details of which were not disputed, from which the inference might be drawn that it was taken by insurrectionists to be used in the course of the insurrectionary campaign or by ordinary thieves:—Held, by the House of Lords (affirming the decision of the High Court of Appeal for Ireland, which reversed the trial Judge, the Divisional Court of the King's Bench Division, and the Court of Appeal in Southern Ireland, ante, p. 45), that the proper inference to be drawn from the proved facts was that the loss fell within the exception. Held, per Viscount Cave, C., that if a loss takes place in consequence of civil commotion, it is not necessary to prove a...