Aggregations

The World Trade Center litigation

The London insurance and reinsurance market will doubtless be hit by litigation resulting from the events on 11 September 2001, although to date the only case to be decided concerned business interruption losses claimed by a cruise company (see the October 2003 issue of Insurance Law Monthly). A significant decision has, however, recently been handed down in the US. In World Trade Center Properties LLC v Hartford Fire Insurance Co , 26 September 2003, decided by US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit on appeal against the judgment of US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Court of Appeals discussed the terms on which the WTC had been insured and the meaning of the term ‘occurrence’ in various of the wordings. A good deal of the judgment is taken up with the preliminary issue of whether the Federal courts had jurisdiction to hear the matter, which turned upon the parties’ State citizenship. It suffices to say that the Court of Appeals was satisfied that the District Court had possessed jurisdiction over the parties and that there was the necessary appellate jurisdiction to hear an appeal.