매도인의 피보험이익으로서의 희망이익과 소유자이익 - 대법원 2018.3.15.선고 2017다240496판결 -

The author makes comments on legal issues of the Korean Supreme Court case 2018.3.15. Docket No. 2017da24096. The concept of insurable interest is very important in the property(or non-life) insurance. Without insurable interest, the insured is not allowed to receive the insurance proceeds. The insurance contract with the insured without insurable interest becomes null and void. Under the cargo insurance whether the consignor(exporter) has insurable interest or not has been at issue. Under CIF, FOB, CIP terms, the risk is transferred from the consignor to the consignee from the moment of loading the cargo on board. Therefore, it may be said that the consignor does no longer has insurable interest during the transportation of the cargo. However, it is not neglected that the consignor still possesses the title of the cargo in case that the Bill of Lading is not issued. According to the laws, the importer(consignee) acquires the right to demand delivery of the cargo when the cargo arrives at the discharging port. Until that moment, the consignor(exporter) still retain the title of the cargo. Accordingly, the consignor still have insurable interest. In several contracts involved in the transportation, it can be found easily that the consignee has obligation to notify to the carrier the fact that the cargo was damaged or lost. In the captioned case, who was the person to notify was at issue under Art. 10 of the Air Waybill. The KSC decided that the consignee is the person to carry out the duty of notifying the damages. But the KSC decided that Art. 10 was against Art. 5 which says that all kinds of damages should be paid by the carrier and therefore, the consignor has the right to raise claims against the carrier. However, the author argues that Art. 10 does not fall into the scope of the application of Art. 5 and that the consignor can be regarded as the agent of the consignee in respect of notifying the damages.