law: Marine Insurance Act, 1963 
  60. Constructive total loss defined 
  (1) Subject to any
  
  express provision in the policy, there is a constructive total loss where the
  
  subject-matter insured is reasonably abandoned on account of its actual total
  
  loss appearing to be unavoidable, or because it could not be preserved from
  
  actual total loss without an expenditure which would exceed its value when the
  
  expenditure had been incurred.
  (2) In particular,
  
  there is a constructive total loss-
  (i) where the assured is deprived of the
  
  possession of his ship or goods by a peril insured against, and
  (a) it is unlikely that he can recover the
  
  ship or goods, as the case may be, or
  (b) the cost of
  
  recovering the ship or goods, as the case may be,
  would exceed their
  
  value when recovered; or
  (ii) in the case of damage to a ship, where
  
  she is so damaged by a peril insured against that the cost of repairing the
  
  damage would exceed the value of the ship when repaired.
  In estimating the cost of repairs, no
  
  deduction is to be made in respect of general average contributions to those
  
  repairs payable by other interests, but account is to be taken of the expense
  
  of future salvage operations and of any future general average contributions to
  
  which the ship would be liable if repaired; or
  (iii) in the case of damage to goods, where
  
  the cost of repairing the damage and forwarding the goods to their destination
  
  would exceed their value on arrival.