Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
THE INSURANCE ACT 2015, S.13A: BRAVE NEW WORLD—OR DEAD END?
Sara Cockerill *
This article discusses s.13A of the Insurance Act 2015, an important if underappreciated element of insurance contract law. After tracing the development of the common law position, it presents a critical assessment of the Law Commission proposals which ultimately led to s.13A and argues that, despite its salutary goals, s.13A may well raise more conceptual difficulties than it solves. The paper concludes by sketching the possible pathways by which the provision might continue its development, both practically and jurisprudentially.
I. INTRODUCTION
Section 13A of the Insurance Act 2015 may not initially present as a natural subject for this lecture. It is not overtly a marine insurance issue. It is not even “vaguely maritime”, that being the broad request as to subject matter which I was given. But appearances can be deceptive. For one thing, we can navigate our course by reference to a number of important judgments by great commercial court judges—and that has to be in 2025, the 130th anniversary of the founding of the Commercial Court, an appropriate thing to do. But, secondly, as you will eventually see, s.13A is bidding fair to be rather more maritime and indeed marine insurance than one might think.
The starting point is to remind ourselves what s.13A is. It is an important, if perhaps underappreciated, provision. It was, as its number indicates, sneaked into the Insurance Act 2015 separately—and to some extent under the radar. Indeed, a quick straw poll amongst my vastly knowledgeable judicial colleagues gave the almost universal reaction of “Remind me?”—a judicial indication of never having known in the first place. When informed that the section introduced an implied obligation to pay claims within a reasonable time into every contract of insurance, more than one indicated a degree of surprise. So, I think “underappreciated” may even be an understatement.
I will take my review of the provision under the three main Parts which follow:
first, the effect of s.13A—setting out the legal position both before and after its coming into force in clearer terms;
second, to probe some of the weaknesses in the position which was eventually settled on;
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