PI Insurance: Brokers Duties At Renewal

In a judgment handed down last week the Court of Appeal considered the duties owed by brokers in a brokers chain. The recent case of Fisk -v- Brian Thornhill & Sons will be of interest to brokers and their insurers.

The judgment considers the nature and scope of the duties owed by a placing broker to the producing broker by whom he is instructed and, also, to the ultimate insured. A number of interesting issues arise:

• Both the Court of Appeal and the parties themselves readily appeared to accept that the placing broker owed a duty to the ultimate insured. No analysis was given as to whether, in light of recent cases such as BP-v-Aon, the requisite legal requirements for such a duty were in fact established.