Public policy and failure to cooperate

Two quite distinct but nevertheless important issues were discussed by Mr Justice Coulson in Porter v Zurich Insurance Co [2009] EWHC 376 (QB). The first was whether an assured could, by pleading mental illness, recover from his insurers despite his own deliberate destruction of the insured subject matter. The second was whether breach of a claims cooperation clause not expressed to be a condition precedent automatically gave rise to damages representing the amount of the assured’s claim.

Porter: the facts

The assured, Mr Porter, insured his house and possessions with the defendant insurers, Zurich, for 12 months from 12 September 2000. The policy excluded, by General Exclusion 1, loss caused by ‘any wilful or malicious act by a member of the family or by a person lawfully at or in the home’. Condition 3 was a claims cooperation provision, in the following terms: