Compliance with claims conditions

Diab v Regent Insurance Co Ltd, June 2006, unreported a decision of the Privy Council on appeal from Belize, raised a number of important issues on the effect of the failure of the assured to comply with a condition precedent requiring the provision of claims information to the insurers. Although the case was disposed of relatively easily, certain comments of the Privy Council suggest a far more flexible approach to the operation of notice clauses than has traditionally been adopted. The precise problem in Diab was that the assured had been told that any claim he did make would be refused because the insurers believed that the assured had caused his own loss. The judgment of the Privy Council was delivered by Lord Scott.