Marine insurance damage claims can qualify as liquidated demands when surveyor-assessed loss is arithmetically determinable.

A marine insurance claim quantified through a surveyor's percentage assessment of cargo damage was treated as a liquidated demand because the payable amount could be ascertained by straightforward arithmetical calculation under the policy and Section 64-UM of the Insurance Act, 1938. The Court held that such a determinable sum is maintainable in a summary suit under Order XXXVII CPC, and the summary procedure was therefore available. The impugned order was set aside and the matter remitted for disposal in accordance with these observations.

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Issues: Whether a claim on a marine insurance policy, quantified on the basis of a surveyor's percentage assessment of cargo damage, constituted a liquidated demand maintainable in a summary suit under Order XXXVII of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

Analysis: The claim arose from damage to insured cargo and the insurer had obtained a survey report assessing the loss in percentage terms. The policy and the applicable marine insurance rules were read together with the statutory requirement for surveyor assessment under Section 64-UM of the Insurance Act, 1938. On that basis, the assessed percentage loss was held capable of being converted by arithmetical calculation into a definite monetary figure. The Court treated that figure as a determinable sum and therefore as a liquidated demand for the purpose of a summary suit.

Conclusion: The claim was held to be a liquidated demand and the summary suit was maintainable.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the matter was remitted for disposal in accordance with the Court's observations.

Ratio Decidendi: A claim is a liquidated demand for the purpose of a summary suit when the amount payable can be ascertained by a straightforward arithmetical calculation from an admitted or assessed percentage loss under the governing policy and statutory framework.

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