ARTICLE · 09 APRIL 2009

Mental Illness And Deliberate Damage To Insured Property

DLA Piper Australia

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It is fundamental to the concept of insurance that it only insures a fortuity not a certainty. There is no cover under the policy if the insured deliberately damages the insured property. But what if the insured is suffering from a mental illness?

AustraliaInsurance

Jenny Yu

Grant MacDonald

It is fundamental to the concept of insurance that it only insures a fortuity not a certainty. There is no cover under the policy if the insured deliberately damages the insured property. But what if the insured is suffering from a mental illness?

The decision of the English High Court in Porter v Zurich [2009] EWHC 376 sets out, for the first time, the degree of mental illness required for an insured to recover under a policy where the insured deliberately damages the insured property.

Mr Porter was suffering from mental illness. He deliberately set fire to his property to commit suicide. He escaped during the fire and survived. The Court held that the insured must meet the test for criminal insanity as set out in the M'Naghten's case, namely:

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