Marine insurance

Pollution coverage

In Insurance Law Monthly (Volume 16: September (pp1–6)) there was extensive discussion of the decision of Colman J in King and others v Brandywine Reinsurance Co (UK) Ltd [2004] Lloyd’s Rep IR 554, in which Colman J ruled that the insurers of the Exxon Valdez, which ran aground in 1989 causing massive pollution damage, were unable to recover from their reinsurers the sums paid to the assured by way of indemnity for clean-up costs. The issues in this case were for the most part of policy interpretation, but the case was nevertheless of major significance given the amounts involved. On appeal, the Court of Appeal, [2005] Lloyd’s Rep IR 509, has upheld the result reached by Colman J, albeit with some variations in the reasoning. The decision of the Court was delivered by Waller LJ, although the judgment was the joint work of Waller and Rix LJJ and Sir Martin Nourse.