Young widow not getting full claim money seeking legal aid. Poor young widow, her hubby died of electrocution while working in the plastic product manufacturing factory. A case of which I personally handle the claim.
Two buddies set up a plastic factory upon graduated from abroad. They sought the financial assistant from both parents.It was a three-man show during the initial period later transformed into 50 employees.
Young Supervisor
One of them was none other than the young supervisor. Before he became a father of a boy, his wife working there. They were blessed with a company car and a rented house. A roof over their head, life was easy and a good income to provide a meal on their table. Good life did not last long.
Electrocuted
I received a call from the owner of the factory around lunch hour.
“Mr. I am coming to your office to pick you up. We need to go to the mortuary asap.”
What a rotten day! It was 6 days before 1998 Chap Goa Mei. In the line of duty, I had no choice, but to follow him. A young woman was sitting with him.
Post-Mortem
“I do not want to have a post-mortem” she sobbed out of anger and hurt, “he already died grisly, why he needs to undergo another damage to his body.”
“His company had taken out a group personal accident insurance for all the employees, your hubby was insured for 100k. If no post-mortem was carried out on him, the insurer could argue that he died of heart attack, there would be no claim for him. Madam, did you want that way?”
“Ok. Did what the company say, I have no saying in this matter.”
The post-mortem stating he died of electrocuted, not because of his heart problem, even though he had a bulky body.
3 months later, the young widow came over to our office to make inquiry concerned the claim money. My staff told her that the full payment had settled.
No claim money
“Why I did not get a cent?” she yelled at the stuff.
” The cheque had issued in favor of the company name and it had already cleared.”
“The cheque should be issued to me, not the company, the life insurance company had given the cheque under her name.” she demanded to get the full payment.
“Madam, did you pay for the personal accident insurance premium for your husband?
“No, it was paid by his boss”
“Since the company made the payment, the payment shall make to the company. We could not seek to redress this kind of issue as we did according to the procedure.”
Threaten
” I would suit the insurer to court and seek my fair compensation”
“Did as you pleased, I could help you in this matter, I am truly sorry, I knew how painful and sorrow to lose a husband at your age.”
What transpire between the two, I had no knowledge about it. The stuff narrated it.
I called her to our office and explained the outcome of the court filing. What was the chance of winning? The lawyer will not highlight to her the losing consequence.
She received 2000 dollars from “Malaysia SOSCO” until she died or marry with another man. If she died earlier, her younger son would get the compensation until he aged 18 or upon graduated with his first degree.
Since her husband died in the south, both of them hailed from the north, all the repatriation and funeral expenses were borne by the boss. She later informed me getting the balance of 65K from the boss.
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Thanks
Interesting story. Good thing the company actually paid the widow what she was owed. It’s so sad that so many people have to go through the heartache of losing a family member and then on top of that get scammed out of their insurance money, on a technicality. I’m glad this was not the case for this young widow,
although if the boss paid for repatriation she should have gotten the full 100k.
Thanks for reading my article and comment.
Yes, this is how insurance work, they have to follow the rule. In fact, it is up to the company to give the compensation to this young widow. The company also suffering a loss due to the death of the young supervisor. It takes a long time to train up another replacement.
It must be a very difficult job to handle a situation like this, giving bad news to someone who is suffering so much grief! Being an insurance agent is not as easy a job as it seems! I guess it is also important to have a sympathetic, supportive and honest agent who can help you through these difficult times.
thanks for reading this article and your valuable comment. A prerequisite requirement for a successful agent must be a good listener, patient, honest, and sympathetic and supportive during the crisis. Of course, the utmost important to have a swiftly claim settlement.
Benefits should be clearly stated in the employment letter/contract and occasionally be updated. The employer was unethical to delay the compensation to the widow. If the employer felt a loss due to the death of its supervisor, they should have bought higher sum insured. And the widow should have personal insurance and not depend on the spouse employer’s group insurance. Like I always say, it’s a tragedy when there was no insurance.
Thanks for reading my article and giving valuable comment. By the insurance law, it is the right of the employer to keep all the claim money. It is the duty of an individual to purchase the personal accident insurance.Group insurance is not compulsory in Malaysia as the employee is cover by Malaysia Socso. The Majority of the Malaysian employer do not have group insurance for their employee.
This is an interesting read.
It just reminded us to be super careful for the details when purchasing an insurance. Or else, insurance is something that can easily be played to the advantage of those who know it.
Thanks for reading my article and valuable comment. One needs to super understand all the insurance policy you have. Read the small fine print or consult your agent for any clarity.
It would be good to get personal insurance especially when one is still young as the premium will be lower. Group insurance is so limited and sometimes very difficult to claim (mostly because of their strict terms and conditions which we don’t really understand in the first place).
Thanks for reading the article and giving me the valuable comment. It is good to have a personal accident or life insurance during the young age as the insurance premium is much cheaper. Group insurance is usually brought and paid by the employer.