A Study on the exclusionary Clause of ‘Professional Climbing for club activities’ in Health-Accidental Insurance

Abstract

The standard terms and conditions of Personal accident and Sickness Insurance compensate for sudden, external and identifiable event that happens by chance, but "professional climbing for the purpose of job, duty and club activity" shall not be compensated unless additional contracts. An insured person, a member of the mountaineering club and an educational technology director of the Gwangju Metropolitan Federation of the Korea Alpine Federation, fell and died while climbing the 8,586m above sea level in Kanchenjunga. The Supreme Court cannot be regarded as professional climbing for the purpose of job or duties ① because it is not a professional climbing for the purpose of maintaining a living, such as the Brand Climbing Team or the Business Team, ② The parallel listing of "the purpose of the club’s activities" along with "job and duty" in the exclusionary provision, is based on the fact that the club’s activities are repeated for a certain period of time, such as job or duty. ③ In other words, in the case of overseas expedition climbing, several people form a team and it will take a considerable period of time from the preparation stage to the actual climbing stage, so it cannot be considered for the purpose of club activities just because several people prepared for a long time and did professional climbing together. ④ In addition, the Gwangju Mountaineering Union, which limited membership requirements to member organizations, was not allowed to join, and the Gwangju Mountaineering Union was not directly or indirectly involved in the expedition. ⑤ In the case of the Himalayan Kanchenjunga expedition, death benefit should be paid because it is not a "professional climbing for the purpose of club activities" stipulated in the exclusionary provision because people from different mountaineering clubs are only one-time. A professional mountaineer who has climbed alpine more than 8,000 meters four times in the past while interpreting the purpose of the club’s activities excessively reduced and recognized the insurer’s responsibility for paying a death benefit again during alpine climbing, making the exclusionary provision useless. Therefore, it is judged that the best way is to clearly define "professional climbing for the purpose of club activities", separate Alpine climbing, and enter into an insurance contract through additional subscription and acceptance procedures for "Professional sports Applicable to the policy" to meet the original purpose of exclusionary provision. It is expected that disputes related to professional climbing for the purpose of club activities will be minimized through the revision of the standard terms and conditions in the future.