Business interruption insurance: infectious diseases

In HDI Global Specialty SE v Wonkana No 3 Pty Ltd [2020] NSWCA 296, a test case involving two policies more or less identically worded, the New South Wales Court of Appeal considered exclusions from cover for losses arising from infectious diseases identified by Australian legislation. The difficulty was that the legislation referred to in the policy had been repealed four years earlier, and therefore had not contemplated Covid-19, and had subsequently been replaced by another Act which for the first time referred to Covid-19.

The legislative background