Miller's Marine War Risks
Page 53
CHAPTER 8
Revolution, rebellion, insurrection …
Revolution, rebellion, insurrection …
8.1 Considered in the strict order in which the insured perils are set out in the War Risks Policy, “revolution, rebellion and insurrection” are the next insured perils to be considered. They are, however, so very close to each other in meaning and also to the meanings of “riots and civil commotions” which appear as insured perils in other paragraphs, that they should be considered together rather than separately. 8.2 It is also apt to consider the cases on “Military or Usurped Power” when construing the scope of revolution, rebellion and insurrection. These are not insured perils in the modern Institute War and Strikes Clauses although they appear as such in insurance policies on other objects. In the Pan Am 1 and Spinney’s 2 cases they were excluded perils. The relevant cases will continue to have some influence on future decisions, particularly on rebellion and insurrection to which there is some particular similarity.Must the proximate cause of a casualty be proven to fall within one of these specified insured perils in order for cover to be engaged?
8.3 It has been suggested that where an insurance policy sets out no fewer than five types of civil disorder in carefully graduated degrees, beginning with the most serious and ending with the least, and moreover includes a generalised provision about civil strife arising from any of them, then any kind of civil disorder which is within the bracket between the most and least serious disorders is insured by the War Risks Policy even though it is not named as an insured peril by the policy. This suggestion seems to have arisen from the Pan Am case,3 where it appears that there was an agreement between the parties that if the insured peril of “insurrection” could not be proved then the more serious disorders of rebellion, revolution and civil war could not arise. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals describes this agreement:All parties agree that if loss was not caused by insurrection then it could not have been caused by any [other] terms relating to civil disorder. Insurrection presents the key issue because rebellion, revolution and civil war are progressive stages in the development in civil unrest, the most rudimentary form of which is insurrection.