1. This is an appeal filed by the appellant/insurance company against the judgment and decree dated 15.07.2005 passed in O.S.No.2 of 1999 by the Senior Civil Judge, Tadepalligudem.

2. For the sake of convenience, as this is a first appeal, the parties are referred to as plaintiff and defendant.

3. The facts of the case, in brief, are that the plaintiff is a registered firm, which carries on business in prawn culture in Visakhapatnam District. The plaintiff entered into a contract with the defendant/insurance company for insuring their crop of prawn in 10 tanks for a sum of Rs.20,86,000/-. During the course of their business, the prawn in all the tanks got affected by disease and the entire crop died. The loss according to the plaintiff was to a tune of Rs.15,53,249.94 ps. The claim was submitted by the plaintiff but the same was repudiated by the Insurance Company on 14.11.1996. As the claim was repudiated, the plaintiff got issued a legal notice and filed the present suit claiming the said sum with interest. The defendants denied the entire claim including interest and stated that the plaintiff did not inform them of the loss within the time stipulated and also that there