Insurance Law Monthly

In TKC London Ltd v Allianz Insurance plc [2020] EWHC 2710 (Comm) what amounted to a test case was brought on the wording of the Allianz Commercial Select Policy. Unlike the policies considered by the court in The Financial Conduct Authority v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd [2020] Lloyd's Rep IR 527 this wording did not have any infectious disease or loss of access extensions and so the arguments were confined to the question of material damage.

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association v Box [2020] EWHC 1948 (Ch) is partly of historical interest, in that it concerns the right of a third party to seek declaratory relief against a wrongdoer’s liability insurers under the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 1930. That Act has been superseded, with effect from 1 August 2016, by the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010, under which the right to seek a declaration is now statutory.

The New Zealand Court of Appeal in Moore v IAG New Zealand Ltd [2020] NZCA 319 has for the first time considered the operation of aggregation wording in respect of the consecutive earthquakes in New Zealand in 2010 and 2011. As will be suggested below, the Court of Appeal’s reasoning is far from free from difficulty.

The decision of Lee J in the Federal Court of Australia in Icon Co (NSW) Pty Ltd v Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Australian Branch [2020] FCA 1493 concerned claims under two separate liability policies. The Liberty Policy was a construction cover, the question being whether its run-off provisions applied to losses occurring the one-year maintenance period after practical completion. The QBE policy covered products liability, the question being whether a building was a “product”.