Insurance Law Monthly

Al Buhaira National Insurance Co v Arab War Risks Insurance Syndicate [2025] DIFC CFI 013 is a lengthy decision of His Excellency Justice Michael Black KC sitting in the Dubai International Court of First Instance. In outline, a reinsured who had avoided the underlying insurance but remained in litigation with the assured sought declarations from the court as to the liability of the reinsurers and of its right to recover defence costs.

The somewhat exceptional facts of Managed Legal Solutions Ltd v Hanison (trading as Fortitude Law) [2025] EWHC 2645 (Comm) gave rise to a more generalised question of when liability insurers are entitled to be joined to proceedings against their assured. The answer given by Louise Hutton KC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, is that if there is a conflict of interest between the insurers and their assured then the insurers may be joined in order to protect their own interests.

In Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Ltd v ArgoGlobal Underwriting Asia Pacific Pte Ltd and Others [2025] SGHC 82 Kwek Mean Luck J in the Singapore High Court considered a range of issues relating to a marine insurance claim. The policy was governed by English law, and so there is a good deal of discussion of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 and the Insurance Act 2015.