피보험자의 자살과 보험약관상 정신질환 면책조항에 대한 고찰 - 대법원 2015.10.15. 선고 2015다34956, 34963 판결을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Under the Korea Commercial Code, the insurer could be exempted from its insurance liability only if the insured accident has been intentionally caused by the insured in case of the life insurance. What led the insured to being intentionally should be under normal circumstances. Accordingly, if the insured hurt itself under its mental illness or the situations similar to such which prohibits it from being free to decide has caused its death, it applies to the contingency which was not made on purpose by the insured, which should be undertaken by the insurer to indemnify the insured’s loss. However, the insured could be exempted from its insurance liability based on the exemption clause (the “Exemption Clause”) in the terms of the accident insurance which allows that the insurer be exempted from the loss caused by the mental illness or insanity of the insured, of which clause was separately addressed from the exemption clause for the insured’s intention or suicide. In this regard, on 15thOctober, 2015, Supreme Court with case number of 2015da34956, 34963 recently accepted that the Exemption Clause was binding and effective. It is likely that the Exemption Clause is not unfair to the policyholder or the insured as what type of the risk undertaken by an insurer is determined subject to the class or type of loss, damage, or liability. Therefore, the above ruling made by the Supreme Court is reasonable and appropriate, of which point is that the insurer was exempted from its insurance liability pursuant to the Exemption Clause in case the circumstances where the insured was not freely able to decide due to its mental illness have led to the insured’s death.