Insurance Law Monthly

In Sky UK Ltd v Riverstone Managing Agency Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 1567 the Court of Appeal has partially upheld and partially reversed the first instance decision of His Honour Judge Pelling KC discussing a series of important and recurring issues in property insurance: the meaning of damage; the timing of coverage; and aggregation.

In Attree Pty Ltd v Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's of London [2024] FCA 1408 Derrington J in the Australian Federal Court discussed the ability of an employer to recover under a liability policy for sums payable to employees under Australian legislation. The court's obvious conclusion was that the policy was not designed to indemnify the employer for payments that it should have made, as it could not be said that any loss had been incurred.

In Princess Theatre Pty Ltd v Ansvar Insurance Ltd [2024] VSC 363 Michael Osborne J considered claims by a number of Melbourne's leading theatres for losses incurred from enforced closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. The issues raised by the case are all familiar, and the theatres were able to recover about 10 per cent of their claimed losses.