MACAU SAR, CHINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Carlos Eduardo Coelho, MdME
accident, if no other longer time limit is stipulated in the insurance contract. For disputes regarding policy terms, premium pay- ments or other claims in general, the law stipulates the following statutes of limitations: • five years for a life insurance contract, health insur- ance and insurance against accidents; • two years for a general insurance contract; and • three years for civil liability insurance (derived from the practice of illegal acts). There is no limitation period in respect of the submis- sion of complaints and/or disputes to the AMCM. The same rule applies to unnamed beneficiaries (such as group insurance policies) for non-life insurance contracts and other third parties, provided that their rights against the insurance contracts are verified. For life insurance contracts, if there is no designation of a beneficiary and no objective criteria for such determi- nation until the death of the policyholder, the legal and contractual benefits of the policy will be transferred to the estate of the policyholder (ie, to its legal heirs). 9.2 Insurance Disputes Over Jurisdiction and Choice of Law Macau law does not specifically state that the policies issued by Macau licensed insured companies must be subject to Macau law. As such, pursuant to the gen- eral principle of contractual freedom, it is possible for policies issued by Macau authorised insurers to not be subject to Macau law. Nevertheless, it is normally advisable for policies issued by authorised insurers to be subject to Macau law, due to the following con- siderations: • the rules on insurance policies contained in the Macau Commercial Code (and the MIO) are of an imperative nature, which means that such rules always have to be followed, regardless of the law applicable to the policy; and • pursuant to the MIO, only Macau courts are competent to give judgments on actions arising from insurance contracts or insurance operations entered into in Macau or in respect of persons or entities who were resident or domiciled in Macau
on the date of such contracts or insurance opera- tions, or in respect of the assets located therein or of the risks situated therein. Governing law should be Macau law if there is no rel- evant connection to any other jurisdiction – eg, if the insurer, policyholder, insured and risks covered are all based in Macau, or if there is no verifiable interest of the parties in choosing a different law. 9.3 Litigation Process In Macau, the litigation process commences with the submission of a statement of claim to the relevant court, which, depending on the nature of the claim, could be different sections of the Judicial Base Court. The civil section has general competence to try any matters that do not fall within the specific matters attributed to any other sections. The initial stage of the proceedings is based on ini- tial written submissions. In a typical civil proceeding, after submission of the statement of claim, when no grounds for preliminary rejection of statement of claim are found, the respondent will be summoned to pro- vide the defence. There may be further pleadings if the respondent invokes any counterclaims. After the pleadings phase, the court will issue an interim decision, setting out the list of material facts considered as established and disputed. The disputed facts should be further proven by documentary and testimonial evidence and other types of evidence. The trial hearing is mainly oral in nature; written state- ments are admitted in exceptional cases, and the final arguments of matters of fact are produced orally before the court. The closing legal arguments can be produced orally, if the parties so agree; otherwise, they should be produced in writing before the final decision. Finally, the decision may be appealed under the pro- cedural rules. 9.4 Enforcement of Judgments See 9.2 Insurance Disputes Over Jurisdiction and Choice of Law regarding the jurisdiction of Macau courts over the indicated Macau insurance contracts
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