Insurance Law Monthly

The English view of product liability policies, and of exclusions from general liability policies, is that a “product” does not include a house. In Metricon Homes Pty Ltd v Great Lakes Insurance SE [2017] VSC 749 the Victoria Supreme Court has rejected that analysis. The case contains a great deal of learning on other aspects of product liability insurance, including the distinction between defects in the product itself and consequential loss caused by the defective product.

The substantive dispute in Oldham v QBE Insurance (Europe) Ltd [2017] EWHC 3045 (Comm) concerned the effect on the payment of defence costs of the insurers raising, and ultimately succeeding in establishing, a coverage claim.

Ramsook v Crossley [2018] UKPC 9, an appeal to the Privy Council from Trinidad and Tobago, concerned the authority of a motor insurer to defend a claim on behalf of its assured. The decision contains important comments on the duties of an insurer who chooses to defend a claim towards its assured.

Avondale Exhibitions Ltd v Arthur J Gallagher Insurance Brokers Ltd [2018] EWHC 1311 (QB) was to a large extent a factual dispute as to whether brokers owed a duty to the assured to warn of the duty of disclosure and, had they done so, whether it would have affected the disclosure made by the assured.