"The case of buried pigs": "RSHB-Insurance" beat off most of the claim for a billion rubles

A detective story played out on an "overprotected" pig farm after the discovery of an outbreak of African swine fever. The death of animals was hidden for a whole month, and their corpses were buried on the territory of the farm.

As the ASN found out, RSHB-Insurance managed to “recapture” most of the billion-dollar claim of Pravdinsky Pig Production in three instances .

An attempt to hide the outbreak of plague

In October 2017, Pravdinskoye Pig Production JSC transferred 7.7 million rubles to RSHB-Insurance. 

In return, the insurer undertook to insure the client's pigs for the period from November 3, 2017 to November 2, 2018, who were on a huge farm in the Kaliningrad region, the village of Novo-Biyskoye. Animals were insured for 737 million rubles. from case and forced slaughter, incl. due to infection of animals with African swine fever (ASF).
 
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Pigs were kept in a pig complex belonging to the IV compartment (farm of the highest level of protection against the spread of infectious diseases).

To illustrate the degree of protection: Compartment IV involves isolation (at least one year) of pigs from animals from other compartments (even from genetic material), walking of pigs is prohibited, personnel from other compartments cannot work there, workers are prohibited from contact with domestic or wild pigs, daily laundry of work clothes, sanitary inspection room with processing of clothes and shoes, etc.

In June-July 2018, the chief veterinarian of Pravdinsky Pig Production S. suspected that several dead pigs at the Otkrom site were infected with African swine fever. In order to hide the disease of pigs from the veterinary authorities, she ordered to bury the carcasses of dead animals on the territory of the pig farm, near the Fattening and Quarantine sites. This was established by the Leningrad District COURT of Kaliningrad as part of a criminal case. But S. was not found guilty of causing the plague on the farm in the first place.

S. at the same time understood that the buried corpses of pigs may contain microorganisms that could infect other animals during transportation and burial.

From the youtube video of the holding, which includes Pravdinskoye Pig Production, it follows that the distance between the individual sites of the compartment is more than 1 kilometer. 
 
The entire livestock was destroyed

. The incubation period from the moment of infection of one individual to the appearance of clinical signs of ASF in it is from 3 to 15 days.

Further events developed rapidly.

In July 2018, Pravdinskoye Pig Production informed the insurer about the death of 1,500 pigs at the Fattening site and the presence of sick animals in three more sections at the Growing site.

On July 10-12, 2018, an epizootological survey of the farm was carried out. As of July 12, 6174 pigs died at the Fattening site, 172 pigs died at the Nursing site, and 22 pigs died at the Sow Speaker site.
 
On July 19, it was decided to destroy the entire population of pigs on the farm.

In February 2020, RSHB-Insurance informed the client about the refusal to recognize the case as insured and the refusal to pay compensation. The insurer noted that the death of the pigs was due to a violation of veterinary rules.

Billion-dollar dispute

After the refusal of the insurer, the pig breeders went to the Arbitration Court of the Kaliningrad Region. Pravdinskoye Pig Production demanded 739 million rubles from RSHB-Insurance. insurance compensation, a penalty of 358 million rubles. million rubles and an additional penalty until the obligation is fulfilled.

The court of first instance partially satisfied the requirements - in the amount of 266 million rubles, a penalty of 129 million rubles. and forfeit until payment of a refund of 0.1% of the amount payable - until full payment. The arbitration explained that RSHB-Insurance should pay for the death of animals that were on the Fattening site, since in case of compliance with veterinary rules, the loss of pigs could be limited only to this site.

The appeal recognized the correctness of these conclusions, but made recalculations according to the number of pigs. If the first instance counted 20.5 thousand heads of pigs, then the appeal stated that there were 10.6 thousand pigs weighing from 30 to 60 kg on the site. and 23.6 thousand animals weighing from 60 to 115 kg.

The total cost of lost pigs at the Fattening site amounted to 224.5 million rubles.

As a result, the appeal recovered from RSHB-Insurance in favor of Pravdinsky Pig Production an insurance compensation of 217 million rubles, a penalty of 105 million rubles. plus 0.1% of the amount for each calendar day of new delay.

As the ASN found out, at the end of April 2022, the cassation upheld the act of appeal.

“As the courts rightly pointed out, compliance with the criteria for classifying a farm as a level IV compartment is a guarantee of the possibility of localizing ASF within one site of a pig farm,” the decision of the Arbitration Court of the North-Western District states.

At the same time, Pravdinskoye Pig Production, in its appeal, asked to recover 647 million rubles from the insurer. compensation and at least 313 million rubles. penalties. The actions of the veterinarian could not affect the amount of the payment in any way, the governor of the region recognized the entire territory of the farm as a hotbed of infection, the plaintiff pointed out.

"RSHB-Insurance" asked to completely refuse the requirements of pig breeders. The courts did not evaluate the argument about the concealment of the occurrence of ASF at the pig farm, the company did not notify about the situation for a month, the insurer said, referring to the client's going beyond the protection of civil rights (paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the Civil Code). 

ASF on farms with the highest protection can be contained within a single site

The press service of RSHB-Insurance informed the ASN that the insurer made a partial payment on this claim. “Despite the case in court proceedings, the company continues to cooperate with Pravdinskoye Pig Production JSC, maintaining partnerships,” RSHB-Insurance noted.

Alexander Svintsov, partner of the law firm AKS Legal, represented the interests of RSHB-Insurance in this case. He told the ASN that it is important for judicial practice that the courts conclude that the status of the IV (highest) compartment in itself is a guarantee of the possibility of localizing the disease within one site. If the enterprise does not comply with veterinary standards, spreading the disease to other sites, then it may be denied payment (at least part) of insurance compensation, summed up Alexander Svintsov.

At the time of publication, no response was received from Pravdinsky Pig Production to the ASN request.

Manages "Pravdinsky Pig Production" "RBPI Group", follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. 

In 2013, one of the world's largest agro-industrial conglomerates, Charoen Pokphand Foods, became the main shareholder of RBPI. RBPI GROUP is managed by Danish-Russian top management, the general DIRECTOR of RBPI Group is Thomas Norgard.
 
The Group includes 9 pig-breeding complexes in the Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Belgorod and Voronezh regions, indicated on the official website of the RBPI Group.

RBPI Group entered the top 10 Russian pork producers in 2021