Insurance & Reinsurance Cases

• Claim under Illegal Cultivation of Drugs clause for waste removal, cleaning and damage caused by cannabis production by a tenant within a commercial warehouse, involving insulation by 1,200 tonnes of textile waste.

• Claim for property damage defended on grounds of misrepresentation regarding business use of home in support of caravan site.

• Claim by gas network operator for losses caused by civil engineers rupturing a gas main supply to 3,500 homes.

• Claim against electrical engineers following a fire in an industrial oven caused by failure of temperature controllers.

• Coverage dispute on Design & Construct policy regarding whether decisions taken on site to fill gaps in the architect’s designs and details should be regarded as workmanship or design.

• Claim by householder for negligent renovation work by insurer, and third-party claim for negligent adjusting and supervision of renovation project.

• Multi-party claim for fire damage by freeholder and leaseholders against main and sub-contractors employed by predecessors in title to convert a substantial property in Covent Garden into apartments.

• Claim against broker for failure to advise on escalation clause in income protection policy.

• Claim for minimum volume rights under insured legal services contract following sale of the insurer and termination of the agreement.

• Claim by owner of laboratory against M&E contractor (and onward claims against two further parties) following malfunction of sprinkler system and damage to equipment.

• Claim for negligence against life insurance company following misinformation about policy being in trust for ex-wife of deceased, including considerations of hypothetical exercise of trustees’ discretion and claims under the 1975 Act.

• Claim against insurer for damage caused by subsidence to residential property.

• Substantial claim under trade credit insurance following collapse of main contractor debtor of insured M&E sub-contractor, involving issues of account certification by administrator and alleged set-offs and counterclaims against primary account and their effect on the insured loss.

• Dispute between medical expenses insurer and hospital about entitlement to claim for pathology tests and entitlement to claw back past payments, involving issues of estoppel, contractual existence and medical necessity.

• Subrogated claim for flood damage caused by culvert overflow, by private landowner against downstream local authority landowner.

• Claim for insured and uninsured losses against fencing contractor and power supplier following destruction of house by fire allegedly caused by electrical fault.

• Claim by estate against quasi-partners of deceased for proceeds of life insurance placed to support options for share buy-back in the event of death.

• Claim by householder against insured chimney sweep in respect of substantial fire damage resisted on the basis of causation.

• Claims in respect of cross-border data protection following failure of UK claims management company to return or destroy data to non-UKminsurer, pending resolution of counterclaims for failure to honour commercial agreements.

• Claim by incapacitated insured under a private executive income protection plan policy, including issues as to degree and nature
of incapacity and quantum.

• Claim against loss adjusters for failure to accurately assess losses prior to a judgment obtained against the insured’s insurers.

• Lloyd’s Market dispute concerning managing agency syndicate charges under a Turnkey TPSMA.

• Dispute in respect of the marketing of insurance products
in the lettings industry.

• Dispute between ATE insurers and personal injury claims company over contractual duties in writing pre-Jackson policies.

• Claims for property damage and business interruption by commercial end-user against, respectively, dealer, distributor
and Italian manufacturer of trucks (and their respective insurers) following series of engine fires and product recall notices.

• Claim by industrial producer of hydrogen peroxide for property damage and business interruption against insured contractor following allegedly negligent re-tubing works on a heat exchanger said to have resulted in the leak of a substantial volume of hydrogen peroxide.

• Dispute between German insurer and UK insured for business interruption and property damage following suspicious fire.

• Mediation in Jersey of an insurance claim in respect
of a substantial residential property destroyed by fire while redevelopment plans were pending.

• Claim against an insurance company by an FSA-authorised administrator of policies sold by the insurance company in respect of breaches of an outsourcing agreement entered into while the defendant was awaiting FSA authorisation.

• Multiple professional negligence claims between UK bank and Irish insurer.

• Various insured professional negligence claims.

• Mediation involving the insurer of an IT supplier sued for breach of contract in supply and installation of system.

• Dispute over the sale and purchase of an insurance broking company.

• Recovery dispute between legal costs insurers and solicitors

Stuart has experience of litigating and advising on domestic
and international insurance, reinsurance and retrocession treaty disputes. He has also acted on cases involving insured claims, working alongside insurers in defending claims and for and against insurers on coverage issues.

Examples include:



• Several disputes between IT suppliers and insurers over policy wording and coverage issues.

• Claims by Lloyd’s Name against syndicate for negligent underwriting

• Dispute between parties to the Wellington Agreement over
run-off of asbestosis claims.

• Arbitration proceedings between Swiss reinsurance company and Indonesian counterparty over terms of retrocession treaty.

• Due diligence investigation of litigation issues prior to acquisition of insurance company.

 

 

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