Property damage: successive losses

The consecutive earthquakes in New Zealand in 2010 and 2011 have given rise to a mass of important litigation on the measure of indemnity in property cases. One of the key issues has been whether an assured can recover loss separately for each earthquake.

All turns on the wording of the policy, and it is now accepted that there can be more than one claim for unrepaired loss only where the policy responds to each loss separately or where there is a reinstatement of cover following each loss. Neither of those conditions were satisfied in Mathieson v Tower Insurance Ltd [2020] NZHC 136.