Insurance Law Monthly

In Cowie v Vitality Corporate Services Ltd and Others [2025] CSOH 52 Lord Sandison in the Court of Session Outer House has considered a series of important points relating to the operation of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012. The court also considered at length the principle that an insurer may, in seeking to deny liability for misrepresentation, might itself be acting in bad faith.

In Dormer v Wilson and Others [2025] EWHC 523 (KB); [2025] Lloyd's Rep IR Plus 18, HHJ Tindal was asked to determine questions of liability only in circumstances where a pillion passenger on a stolen motorcycle suffered head injuries in a road accident at a time when he was not wearing a helmet. A range of important questions on the operation of the Road Traffic Act 1988, the Uninsured Drivers Agreement 2015 and contributory negligence rules were discussed by the court.

In Pearce and Another v Toka Tū Ake Natural Hazards Commission and Another [2025] NZHC 623; [2025] Lloyd's Rep IR Plus 25, Osborne J in the New Zealand High Court has challenged the accepted orthodoxy that the limitation period for an insurance claim runs from the date of the insured peril rather than the date on which the claim was denied or should have been paid. The case ultimately turned on the express wording of the policy and the New Zealand regime of state insurance for natural catastrophes, but the court chose to go much further.