Crash alone did not kill man, 77

AN INSURANCE company has avoided a £66,000 pay-out after convincing a court that a road crash was not the sole cause of a pensioner's death.

Walter McCann, 77, had sustained chest injuries which would not have been expected to kill him, but they led to pneumonia because of pre-existing medical problems.

His executors tried to argue that the accident was the effective cause of death, clearing the way for a payment under an insurance policy.

However, Lord Hodge ruled at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that Great Lakes Reinsurance (UK) plc had been entitled to reject the claim.

The court heard Mr McCann, of Ordhead, Aberdeenshire, had been driving his Rover car on the Craigearn-Cluny road on 26 June 2006 when it was struck by another vehicle emerging from a side road.

He suffered a fractured sternum, multiple rib fractures and bruising to the lungs. He was treated in the intensive care unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, but died from pneumonia a week later.

Mr McCann had lung and heart disease, which restricted his life expectancy to about three years. The diseases made him vulnerable to developing pneumonia from chest injuries which, otherwise, would not have been life-threatening.

Under a Great Lakes personal accident insurance policy which Mr McCann had held for almost 20 years, a benefit was payable if "bodily injury… is the sole cause of… death."

Bodily injury did not include disease or degenerative process. The firm refused a claim worth 66,732, and Mr McCann's executors took the case to court.