Girelės paukštynas UAB successfully appeals in a case against Lietuvos Draudimas

COBALT successfully represented Girelės paukštynas UAB, a poultry farm, in a case against the insurer Lietuvos Draudimas. The case is a precedent for assessing which decisions of state institutions should be regarded as meeting the requirements of the Law on Animal Welfare and Protection.

The Supreme Court of Lithuania (SCL) upheld the company’s cassation appeal and overturned the decision of the Vilnius District Court and the ruling of the Lithuanian Court of Appeal against Girelės paukštynas UAB.

The dispute between Girelės paukštynas UAB and the insurance company arose after some of the chickens in the company’s poultry farms contracted salmonellosis, and the Veterinary Service issued a recommendation to slaughter the sick birds. Lietuvos Draudimas refused to recognise the slaughter of sick chickens as an insured event.

The SCL decided that the lower courts interpreted the provisions of the insurance regulations incorrectly. The court noted that the recommendation of the Veterinary Service to slaughter flocks of infected chickens can be considered as an order for slaughter, because only in this case would the violation of the requirements of the Law on Animal Welfare and Protection be avoided. Therefore, the recommendation of the Veterinary Service to slaughter the infected birds should be considered an order in the sense of the insurance contract concluded by the parties and the rules applicable to it. Accordingly, the SCL submitted an assessment that in the case in question, Lietuvos Draudimas refused to pay the insurance benefit unjustifiably.

Since the lower courts did not assess the reasonableness of the amount of the requested insurance benefit (limiting themselves to the unfounded conclusion that the events were not insured), the SCL decided to refer the civil case to the court of first instance for re-examination in order to determine the amount of the insurance payment.

Girelės paukštynas UAB is a poultry company that has been operating since 1973.

Lietuvos Draudimas is the largest and most experienced insurance company in the Baltic countries. In 2021, the company celebrated its century in the market. Lietuvos Draudimas controls more than a third of the country’s non-life insurance market. In 2022, a total of 651 739 customers in Lithuania signed contracts with Lietuvos Draudimas.

COBALT team was led by Partner Marius Inta and Senior Associate Dr Vaidas Kontrimas.