Nigeria’s Insurance Act of 2003. The True Import of Section 69 and its Legislative Paradox

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Law - Miscellaneous, grade: 4.0, University of Lagos, course: Insurance Law, language: English, abstract: The Insurance Act follows several amendments and repeals since 1961, in 1976 one of the Insurance Decrees was promulgated which introduced a separate section purportedly handling settlement of insurance claims in Nigeria. The provision has since then survived subsequent amendments and repeals with little or no substantial change. It was a laudable innovation but very inordinate and unwholesome. A replica of the section 43 of the 1976 Insurance Decree in the 2003 Insurance Act is section 69. The provision is flawed with errors of misappropriation and legislative paradox. Unfortunately, the errors have been carried into fruition by the attitude of the courts through a somewhat inadvertent statutory interpretation that has heralded the application of that provision over the past three decades. This paper intends to expose these statutory defects and recommend amendments as we argue that the law as it is means more or less that Nigeria has no specific provision in its insurance Act dealing with settlement of insurance claims