Single occurrence ruling

New York Judge Martin has ruled that under policies written by three insurers, Royal & SunAlliance’s Royal Indemnity unit, Hartford Fire and St Paul Fire & Marine, the destruction of the World Trade Center was a single occurrence. This because policy wording was based on the WilProp form, drawn up by broker Willis, under which a “series of similar causes” amount to a single insurable event. However, the total coverage from these is only a small proportion of the whole, being worth about US$112mn.