MANDER AND OTHERS v COMMERCIAL UNION ASSURANCE COMPANY PLC AND OTHERS MANDER AND OTHERS v PRUDENTIAL ASSURANCE COMPANY LTD PEARL ASSURANCE PLC MANDER AND OTHERS v GYNGELL DOBINSON GREGORY COMPANY LTD DAVID GYNGELL & COMPANY LTD

[1998] Lloyd's Rep IR 93

QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION COMMERCIAL COURT

BEFORE MR JUSTICE Rix

Retrocession - P&I risks - Declarations - Whether properly made and accepted - Reinsured subscribing to open covers developed by brokers for insurance of marine P&I liabilities - Brokers seeking to retrocede reinsureds liabilities under those covers by declaring them under further open Marine Multi-liability Cover subscribed by defendant reinsurers - Actions by reinsured against reinsurers - Reinsurers alleging that (1) no proper declarations were made and accepted under cover; (2) if there ever were contracts of reinsurance, such contracts had been validly avoided - Counter-allegations of estoppel, waiver and ratification - Settlement between reinsured and following reinsurers - Whether leading reinsurers had no authority under the cover to bind following market - Whether brokers were liable to indemnify reinsured against loss of reinsurances, both so far as security of reinsurers was concerned, and so far as security of following market was concerned.