Policy terms

Effect of plea of fraud

Insurers who believe that they have the right to refuse to make payment to an assured on the basis that the assured has deliberately brought about his own loss will normally wish to raise alternative defences, in the entirely justified belief that satisfying a court that there has been fraud is often not straightforward. The decision of the Privy Council in Super Chem Products Ltd v American Life and General Insurance Co Ltd [2004] UKPC 2, forthcoming in [2004] Lloyd’s Rep IR, on appeal from the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago will doubtless be of great relief to insurers, as it removes from English law the suggestion that reliance on fraud precludes other policy defences. The decision of the Privy Council was delivered by Lord Steyn.