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Supreme Court denies Ayala Land’s insurance claim for 2007 Glorietta 2 blast

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Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News

MANILA - The Supreme Court has denied Ayala Land’s petition seeking to hold an insurance company liable for the Glorietta 2 explosion in 2007, a resolution released Wednesday said.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/-depth/10/21/10/glorietta-blast-past">Glorietta: Blast from the Past</a></li></ul>In a resolution dated October 17, 2018, the SC First Division dismissed Ayala Land’s petition questioning the findings of the Court of Appeals and the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 65 which denied its claims against Standard Insurance.Neither the ruling nor the high court&#x27;s public information office indicated the amount of Ayala Land’s insurance claim, but a 2018 decision from the Court of Appeals said it was P220.5 million.Eleven people died and more than a hundred were injured when an explosion rocked the shopping mall at the heart of Makati&#x27;s business district about a decade ago. It was initially blamed on an LPG tank explosion in a restaurant.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/metro-manila/01/13/11/doj-methane-buildup-caused-2007-glorietta-blast">Methane buildup - not bomb - caused 2007 Glorietta blast</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/-depth/11/18/10/bomb-experts-face-glorietta-2-blast">Bomb experts face off on Glorietta 2 blast</a></li></ul>But in defending themselves against a criminal complaint for negligence, Ayala Land and its officers claimed the blast was caused by a bomb citing foreign experts the company commissioned.The Department of Justice in 2008 rejected Ayala Land’s bomb explosion theory and upheld the biogas explosion theory forwarded by the Philippine National Police although it charged not Ayala Land and its officers for criminal negligence but the officers of Makati Supermarket Corporation, the owner of the Makati Supermarket Building which housed Glorietta 2.Ayala Land’s position proved crucial when the courts decided the insurance claim case.<div>INSURANCE CLAIM </div>Under Ayala’s commercial all-risk insurance policy, Standard Insurance undertook to indemnify Ayala Land in any sudden and accidental physical destruction or damage to its property except if caused by an “excluded risk.”Excluded risks include pollution, war, invasion, act of foreign enemy, hostilities or warlike operations, mutiny and acts of terrorism. In resolving Ayala’s complaint to collect on its insurance policy, the SC cited Ayala’s previous statements that the Glorietta 2 blast was caused by an explosive device, despite its “sudden” claim in the complaint that it was not.“Ayala Land has numerously declared and as found by Ayala Land’s own investigators, that the explosion was caused by an explosive device, which constitutes as an act of terrorism,” the resolution said, pointing out to an official press statement from Ayala Land expressing its disappointment as to the finding of a multi-agency task force that the cause of the explosion was the build-up of methane gas and diesel vapor at the basement and not due to an explosive device.“To suddenly claim that the explosion was not caused by an explosive device simply because Malayan Insurance denied its claim under its Terrorism policy with the latter is merely an afterthought that cannot be considered by this Court,” it added.The SC reiterated a long-standing rule in insurance claims.“The general rule is that the insured has the burden of proof to show that the loss or damage was caused by a covered peril. However, in case of an “all-risk policy insurance,” the insurer has the duty to establish that the loss or damage falls within the excluded risk or perils,” the resolution said.“Here, Standard Insurance has discharged its burden by proving that the destruction of [Glorietta 2] was caused by an excluded peril,” declared the Court.The Court also ruled that even assuming that the explosion was caused by the build-up of methane gas and diesel vapor at the basement of Glorietta 2, “pollution” is still an excluded peril based on Ayala Land’s insurance policy.The SC however clarified that it is not a trier of facts and could only rely on the findings of the lower courts as to what really caused the Glorietta 2 blast.

The Supreme Court has denied Ayala Land’s petition seeking to hold an insurance company liable for the Glorietta 2 explosion in 2007, a resolution released Wednesday said.

The Supreme Court has denied Ayala Land’s petition seeking to hold an insurance company liable for the Glorietta 2 explosion in 2007, a resolution released Wednesday said.

Supreme Court denies Ayala Land’s insurance claim for 2007 Glorietta 2 blast

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Supreme Court denies Ayala Land’s insurance claim for 2007 Glorietta 2 blast

Mike Navallo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Nov 14, 2018 02:57 PM PHT

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Updated Nov 14, 2018 03:32 PM PHT

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