Liability insurance: aggregation

In Lord Bishop of Leeds (The Right Reverend Nicholas Baines) and Another v Dixon Coles & Gill and Others [2021] EWCA Civ 1211; [2021] Lloyd’s Rep IR Plus 27 the Court of Appeal analysed the wording of the Solicitors Regulatory Authority Indemnity Insurance Rules 2013 whereby solicitors are required to carry insurance of at least £2 million per claim under wording complying with the Minimum Terms and Conditions of Professional Indemnity Insurance. The question was whether long-standing and systematic fraud by one of the partners in a firm of solicitors had given rise to claims arising from “one series of related acts or omissions” for the purposes of the aggregation clause in the insurance.

Lord Bishop of Leeds : the facts