YOUNG V ROYAL AND SUN ALLIANCE INSURANCE PLC

[2020] CSIH 25, Court of Session, Inner House, Lord President Carloway, Lord Brodie and Lord Woolman, 19 May 2020

Insurance (property) – Duty of fair presentation – Waiver

This claim arose from a fire at commercial premises owned by the assured and his company in Glasgow. The application for insurance had been through brokers, who had prepared a market presentation of some 20 pages using their own software. The presentation identified the claimant and the company as the clients. There was a moral hazard declaration in the form of a drop-down menu requiring boxes to be ticked against any true statement. One of the statements was “no proposer, director or partner of the insured under the contract in question has ever been made bankrupt, insolvent, or subjected to such proceedings”, and the box was left without a tick.