Whose rule is it anyway?

Tim Taylor, a partner, and Patric McGonigal, an associate in the shipping and international trade team at BLG, look at a recent case concerning the recovery of foreign settlements from insurers.

From time to time the courts pronounce in cases in ways which remind insurance practitioners of existing principles and flag up new points for the market to consider. On 26 January 2006 the English Commercial Court handed down judgment in Enterprise Oil Ltd v Strand Insurance Company Ltd [2006] EWHC 58 (Comm), a matter involving an attempt by an insured to recover a contribution made to the settlement of proceedings in Texas from its liability insurers.