RISTORANTE LTD (T/A BAR MASSIMO) V ZURICH INSURANCE PLC

[2021] EWHC 2538 (Ch), Chancery Division, Mr Justice Snowden, 21 September 2021

Insurance (property) – Duty of fair presentation – Question relating to insolvency of directors and partners – No reference made to insolvency of companies controlled by directors and partners – Whether question truthfully answered – Disclosure – Whether disclosure waived by insurers

Ristorante Ltd (RL) was the leaseholder of a property in Glasgow operating as a bar and restaurant. The company had three directors and shareholders, ML, DD and SD. Each had been directors of three other companies, and those companies had been dissolved after insolvency between 2011 and 2015. A policy on the premises was renewed in 2017, and the proposal form asked RL to confirm that: "No owner, director, business partner or family member involved with the business ... has ever been the subject of a winding-up order or company/individual voluntary arrangement with creditors, or been placed into administration, administrative receivership or liquidation". RL confirmed that statement. Following a fire in January 2018 Zurich purported to avoid the policy for misrepresentation and non-disclosure.