News Supreme Court rulings February 2020

Reporting the claim to the insurance company late

By order no. 24210/2019 the Third Civil Section of the Supreme Court clarified that in the area of property and casualty insurance, the failure of the insured to give notice to his or her insurance company of the claim that has occurred, in compliance with the terms stipulated in Art. 1913 Civil Code (and possibly by the policy), it cannot result in the loss of the insurance guarantee.

In fact, in this regard, it is necessary to assess whether said noncompliance is determined by malice or negligence, since in the latter case the right to indemnity is preserved, nevertheless, reducing proportionally as a result of the injury suffered by the insurer.

Current account dispute, assignment of credit is not automatic

The Supreme Court in Order no. 21963/2018 established the principle that the co-signers of an account certainly have the right to operate on it, however, in the event of the death of one of the co-signers, they cannot appropriate the remaining credit in injury to the legitimacy of the heirs legitimated.

In fact, the co-ownership of the account integrates a unilateral act that is capable of transferring the legitimacy to operate the account, but not the ownership of the credit. For the latter, integral to a true assignment of credit, a contract between assignor and assignee is required.

In any case, it is without prejudice to the different will of the parties.

Pre-departure illness, the tour operator is responsible for compensation

In case of serious illness such that the departure is prevented, it is the Tour Operator itself that has to return what was spent on the trip for tourist purposes, in the case of an all-inclusive package , even if the customer had not taken out any insurance policy with it.

This was established by the Court of Cassation, ruling no. 18047/2019, also specifying that the practical purpose of the contract (the cause of the contract)-as a summary of the interests that the individual store confers relevance to the grounds-as long as the interests have assumed a decisive value in the economy of the store, are common to the parties or, if referable to only one of them, are in any case cognizable by the other.