Insurance Law Monthly

In Carbis Bay Hotel Ltd and Another v American International Group Ltd [2025] EWHC 1041 (Comm) the claimants had an all but impossible task to persuade HHJ Russen KC that a closed list of diseases in the definition of the word "disease" could be reopened to include Covid-19.

The question for the Court of Appeal in Ali v HSF Logistics Polska SP zoo [2024] EWCA Civ 1479; [2025] Lloyd's Rep IR 215 was whether a claimant whose vehicle was damaged in an accident due to the fault of a third party was entitled to recover credit hire charges in circumstances where the vehicle did not possess a MOT certificate and therefore could not lawfully have been driven. At first instance Martin Spencer J declined recovery, but his decision was reversed by the Court of Appeal. The only reasoned judgment was that of Stuart-Smith LJ.

There are relatively few decided cases on trade credit insurance. The decision of Sir Bernard Eder, sitting as a judge in the Singapore International Commercial Court, in Marketlend Pty Ltd and Another v QBE Insurance (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2025] SGHC(I) 1 is useful for its analysis of the terms of such policies. In the event, the case turned upon other matters, including a wrongful assignment of the policy, breaches of conditions precedent, failure to prove genuine loss and failure to disclose material facts.

In Transit Pty Ltd and Another v Arch Underwriting at Lloyd's (Australia) Pty Ltd and Others [2024] VSC 485; [2024] Lloyd's Rep IR Plus 37 the question for Delany J in the Victoria Supreme Court was whether a business interruption hybrid extension clause applied to loss suffered by the assured as the result of the official closure of premises in the vicinity of the Insured Premises by reason of Covid-19 on those other premises.