Statute of Limitations Applicable to Claims Under Consumer Insurance Contracts

Since Consumer Protection Law No. 24,240 entered into force in 1993, the application of the statute of limitation to claims under insurance contract resulted in a number of disputes. The main point of these discussions was the determination of the limitation period.

While on the one hand, article 58 of the Insurance Law No. 17,418 establishes that "actions based on the insurance contract expire within a period of one year, calculated from when the corresponding obligation is enforceable", article 50 of the Consumer Protection Law, in the wording given by Law No. 26.361 in 2008, established that " judicial and administrative actions, and sanctions arising from this law shall expire within a term of three (3) years. When other general or special laws establish statutes of limitations other than that established previously, the most favorable to the consumer or user shall be applied. The statute of limitation shall be interrupted by the commission of new infractions or by the initiation of administrative or judicial proceedings".

Thus, while a sector of academia and part of the case law supported the application of the triennial statute of limitation to actions arising from insurance contracts that can be classified as consumer contracts, another large part maintained that the specialty of the Insurance Law over the Consumer Protection Law made it imperative to apply the annual statute of limitation established by article 58 of the Insurance Law.

Law No. 26,994, enacted on October 1, 2014, amended the text of article 50 of the Consumer Protection Law, which now reads as follows: "Sanctions arising from this law expire within a term of three (3) years. The statute of limitation is interrupted by the commission of new infractions or by the initiation of administrative proceedings". Thus, it seemed clear that the three-year statute of limitation applies only to sanctions arising from the breach of Consumer Protection Law, but not to judicial actions.

In two recent judgments (“Consumidores Financieros Asociación Civil p/su defensa c. La Meridional Compañía Argentina de Seguros S.A. s/ ordinario” of 10/18/2016 and “GDF Cargas Congeladas S.R.L. c/ QBE Seguros La Buenos Aires Sociedad Anónima y otros s/ ordinario” of 12/29/2016) Commercial Court of Appeal D confirmed this opinion, declaring that the annual statute of limitation applies to all claims arising from the insurance contract, regardless of whether it is a consumer contract or not. These decisions are in line with the case law of the Supreme Court of Justice in the sense that "the statute of limitation cannot be separated from the cause of the legally demandable obligation".

Especially clarifying is the vote of Dr. Garibotto who did not hesitate to make explicit his change of criteria, understanding that the amendment introduced by Law No. 26,994 to article 50 makes it clear that "this [three year] term only applies to administrative sanctions, not to judicial actions".