Canceling trips can be expensive. Insurance companies promise protection against this. Especially in the case of previous illnesses, it is advisable to take a look at the conditions – so that you don’t end up looking stupid.
Many travel cancellation policies contain a clause stating that they pay for “unexpected and serious illnesses”. If such an illness occurs, the insurance covers the cancellation costs incurred for the canceled holiday. Just what does unexpected and difficult mean?
The answer: Because this sometimes depends on the evaluation of the provider, only a closer look at the insurance conditions will help. This is exemplified by a judgment by the Neubrandenburg district court (case no.: 1 S 56/20), which the specialist journal “Reiserecht aktuell” (Issue 1/23) is now reporting on.
The case: A woman had taken out travel cancellation insurance for herself and her husband, who was suffering from cancer. The couple had learned of the diagnosis several weeks earlier. Shortly after completing the policy, tumors were found in the man’s thoracic vertebrae, which had to be surgically removed. The woman canceled the trip. There were around 750 euros in fees for this – but the insurance company refused to take them on.
She referred to a clause in the insurance conditions, where under the point “Pre-existing conditions” it says: If diseases were known at the time the policy was taken out and were treated in the six months before, then these are not insured.
The woman went to court. Her argument: The extent of the cancer was not foreseeable when the insurance was taken out. The court saw it differently: the disease was known and therefore not “unexpected”. Accordingly, the woman’s insurance does not have to reimburse the cancellation fees.
What the court also made clear: the wording of the “unexpected and serious illness”, which consumers often find vague, is not opaque. According to this, the “average policyholder” is made aware of the insurance cover in a comprehensive and understandable way by this wording – despite the “leeway in assessment in the event of a long-term illness and in relation to the intensity of the illness”.
The court refers to the general usage. Accordingly, the word “unexpected” means that an illness must occur unexpectedly, i.e. suddenly and unforeseen, from which consumers would have to conclude that, as a rule, only acute illnesses that occur unforeseen are insured.
