Insurance Law Monthly

In Sky UK Ltd and Another v Riverstone Managing Agency Ltd and Others [2023] EWHC 1207 (Comm) His Honour Judge Pelling KC discussed a series of important and recurring issues in property insurance: the effects of co-insurance, the meaning of damage, the timing of coverage and aggregation.

In Flanagan v Bernasconi [2023] NSWCA 150 the New South Wales Court of Appeal has affirmed the first instance decision of Schmidt J, [2022] NSWSC 381. Here, the claimant sued her insurance broker for negligence in advising her to switch insurers, thereby leaving her uninsured for damage to her swimming pool. There was little doubt as to the negligence, the key issue was whether insurance would have been available for the precise loss suffered, ie whether the broker's negligence had been causative of the loss.

The New Zealand Supreme Court in Local Government Mutual Funds Trustee Ltd v Napier City Council [2023] NZSC 97 has upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, [2022] NZCA 422, on the proper construction of a liability policy. The issues on the appeal were confined to the application of an exclusion clause where a claim resulted from apportionable insured and excluded causes.

In Bellini (N/E) Ltd v Brit UW Ltd [2023] EWHC 1545 (Comm); [2023] Lloyd's Rep IR Plus 23 Clare Ambrose, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, considered as a preliminary issue the scope of an infectious diseases extension in a business interruption policy. Due to the rather unusual wording of the clause, the court's view was that physical damage to property remained the trigger for coverage.