Momentum’s Ganas saga prompts ombudsman to request a law review
The long-term insurance watchdog wants a policy to be retroactively restructured in the event of a non-fraudulent misrepresentation
The ombudsman for long-term insurance has called on legislators to reconsider current non-disclosure laws. Under the current legislation, the ombudsman’s office has to apply the law to the facts in cases brought to it for resolution, even if the outcome is considered unfair in the eyes of the public. This is why the ombudsman upheld Momentum’s 2018 decision in the high-profile Ganas case. Nathan Ganas died when criminals shot him in front of his family in a botched hijacking. Momentum initially turned down the R2.4-million claim on Ganas’s life policy due to his failure to disclose a pre-existing medical condition when he applied for cover. “We upheld Momentum’s right to repudiate the policy and decline the death claim,” judge Ron McLaren says in his latest annual report. He said in its final determination, the ombudsman applied the law to the facts as it established them. The causal connection is between the non-disclosure and the conclusion of the contract and not between the non-...
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