As the consequences differ from state to state, it is very important concentrate on what can occur if there’s a delay in offering a proof of loss or discover to a provider in an insurance coverage declare. Some states are extra lenient and comply with the notice-prejudice rule.1 “The notice-prejudice rule requires that the insurance company can assert late notice as a defense to overage only if the late notice has caused actual prejudice to the insurer.”2 Some states, however, are a lot stricter on complying with any deadlines for discover or proof of loss. What can occur in Arkansas if a proof of loss is late?
In Arkansas, the place an insurance coverage coverage gives that the giving of discover of a loss, declare, or a lawsuit is a situation precedent to restoration, the insured should strictly comply with the discover requirement or threat forfeiting the appropriate to get well.3 When that is the case, the insurer needn’t present prejudice by any delays or lack of notification.4
In Teutonia Ins. Co. v. Johnson, the place a coverage of fireside insurance coverage stipulated that the insured ought to, inside sixty days after a hearth, present a sworn assertion to the insurance coverage firm offered that no swimsuit must be sustainable till after full compliance by the insured and a failure to furnish such a proof of loss throughout the stipulated time operated as a forfeiture of the coverage.5
The appellate court docket held:
The proof of loss, granting that the identical was enough, was not made throughout the sixty days. This delinquency constitutes a bar to the motion, and a breach of the situations of the coverage. The fireplace occurred on the thirty first of January 1900, and this swimsuit was instituted on the nineteenth day of February 1900. The courts can not make contracts between events, nor can the courts always decide what’s materials and what’s not. These issues are left to the events to find out for themselves, as a common rule. We can not additionally see the actual cause the events bear in mind when making their contracts. We construe the which means of those contracts, when the development turns into vital; however when undisputed situations are made, we’re certain by them as are the events to such contracts. It seems to us that there was a number of plain breaches of the situations of the coverage, and that these breaches by the insured prevents his restoration thereon.6
It is vital to be well timed and conscious of when Arkansas requires strict compliance and what can occur if deadlines in insurance policies aren’t strictly complied with.
1 Larry P. Schiffer, The Notice-Prejudice Rule and Claims-Made Policies, FC&S, https://www.squirepattonboggs.com/~/media/files/insights/publications/2016/06/the-notice-prejudice-rule-and-claims-made-policies/the-noticeprejudice-rule-and-claimsmade-policies.pdf
2 Id.
3 Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co. v. Care Mgmt., 2010 Ark. 110, ¶ 6, 361 S.W.3d 800, 803 (Ark. 2010).
4 Id.
5 Teutonia Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 72 Ark. 484, 490, 82 S.W. 840, 842 (Ark. 1903).
6 Id.