Remedies for breach

In Joseph Fielding Properties (Blackpool) Ltd v Aviva Insurance Ltd [2010] EWHC 2192 (QB) HHJ Wacksman QC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, considered the circumstances in which a fraudulent claim, a failure to disclose a previous fraudulent claim and a failure to disclose previous breaches of the duty of utmost good faith entitled an insurer to avoid a policy.

The facts

The claimant, JFP, owned property at Hoo Hill Industrial Estate, in Blackpool. PL was the principal shareholder in, and director of, JFP. The property was insured by JFP under a policy issued by Aviva, the risk under which incepted on 28 March 2008. Condition 7 was a fraudulent claims provision, in the following terms: