Description
It was inappropriate to determine as a preliminary issue whether an insurance company could rely on exclusions clauses in a personal accident insurance policy as to the deceased's state of mind at the time of a fatal car crash; to so would inhibit the trial judge in determining whether his acts had been voluntary.
The trial judge had to decide what the state of the deceased's mind was which would be based in part on the cross examination of experts to determine what he would have been aware of and what decisions he could fairly be said to have made. The facts were not agreed and the consequences of the deceased's behaviour were not agreed. It would be wrong to inhibit the trial judge in relation to the finding that he had to make about whether the deceased's actions were voluntary. It was not appropriate to determine the preliminary issue. It was far better, even though costs were involved, that the issues be determined at trial. The D was ordered to pay the C's costs of and occasioned by the instant hearing. The D had initially served a blanket denial. It amended its defence very late, and had taken a different stance at the instant hearing.
