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ARTICLE · 17 SEPTEMBER 2020

Insurance policy holders succeed in UK business interruption test case, at first instance

Gilchrist Connell
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A test case relating to cover for the COVID-19 pandemic under business interruption policies was also brought in NSW.

AustraliaInsurance
Dan Robinson
Dan Robinson
Alex Haslam
Alex Haslam
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Introduction

On 15 September 2020, the England and Wales High Court handed down its judgment in the highly publicised business interruption test case: The Financial Conduct Authority v Arch and Others [2020] EWHC 2448 (Comm). This judgment is a significant development for property insurers underwriting risks in the United Kingdom, with the Court finding that cover is potentially available under a suite of property insurance policies for business interruption losses sustained on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The potential availability of cover arises from the Court's findings that ‘non-damage' extensions of cover relating to notifiable diseases and prevention or restriction of access are potentially triggered by the pandemic, and its finding that the method of determining causation and loss which was applied in Orient Express1 did not apply to the wordings under consideration in this case.

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