[1973]DLCA2235 • November 30, 1973 • Court of Appeal
POKUA vs. STATE INSURANCE CORPORATION
The appellant, Adjoa Pokua, was injured as a passenger in a vehicle owned by Christian Bandoh and driven negligently by Ibrahim Moshie, a driver employed by Bandoh. Pokua obtained a judgment against Bandoh for damages. Bandoh's vehicle was insured by the State Insurance Corporation under a third party policy which contained a suspensory condition rendering the policy inoperative if the vehicle was driven by anyone other than the named driver, Kwame Amoah. At the time of the accident, the vehicle was driven by Moshie, not Amoah. Pokua sued the insurer to satisfy the judgment against Bandoh, claiming the suspensory condition was invalid under the Motor Vehicles Third Party Insurance Act, 1958.
read moreThe question raised by this appeal is of obvious public importance affecting not only insurance companies but everybody else, whether as insured motorists or as the potential victims of motor accidents. Does our Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) Act, 1958 (No. 42 of 1958), hereinafter referred to as the Act, place any restrictions on the contractual freedom of insurance companies to issue third party policies subject to conditions which can result in avoiding liability to third parties injured as a result of the use of vehicles required to be covered by such insurance? More specifically, where a policy of third party motor insurance contains a suspensory condition rendering the policy inoperative whenever the insured vehicle is driven by someone other than the person named in the policy as the driver, is the insurer nevertheless rendered liable by the Act to a third party injured whilst the vehicle is being driven by someone other than the named driver? The facts of the case givi...