Subrogation: co-insurance

In Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Trust Ltd v Lakehouse Contracts Ltd and Others [2018] EWHC 558 (TCC) Fraser J addressed the vexed question of whether a sub-contractor was entitled to the protection of a Project Insurance policy covering all sub-contractors and was therefore immune from subrogation proceedings.

The court’s ultimate conclusion was that subrogation immunity rested not upon the scope of the policy but rather upon the arrangements between the contracting parties. Those arrangements showed that losses suffered by the contractor at the hands of the sub-contractor were not to be borne by the contractor’s insurers but by the sub-contractor itself.