Causation: the meaning of “arising from”

In British Waterways v Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance plc [2012] EWHC 460 (Comm) the court was again required to consider, as one of many points argued, the causal requirement imposed by the words “arising from” in an insurance policy, importantly, in a clause excluding liability.

Burton J reviewed authorities, which he considered apparently inconsistent, on those words, and held that in the case of a clause excluding liability “arising from”, insurers needed to show that the proximate cause of the loss was the subject of the exclusion. The decision is considered by Nicholas Davidson QC and Miles Harris of 4 New Square.