‘This appeal turns on the true construction of an aggregation clause contained in an insurance policy applicable to all solicitors’ indemnity policies pursuant to the requirement in the Solicitors’ Act 1974 for compulsory liability insurance for solicitors and the Minimum Terms and Conditions (‘MTC’) required to be incorporated into such polices.’
Held: Teare J went too far in saying that the transactions had to be dependent on each other. It accepted a submission for the Law Society as an intervener, that there must be an ‘intrinsic’ relationship between the transactions rather than a relationship with some outside connecting factor, even if that factor was common to the transactions. If the relevant transaction was the payment of money out of an escrow account, which should not have been paid out of that account, what would be ‘intrinsic’ would depend on the circumstances of that payment. The court summarised its interpretation, at para 33, by saying that ‘the true construction of the words ‘in a series of matters or transactions’ is that the matters or transactions have to have an intrinsic relationship with each other, not an extrinsic relationship with a third factor.’ It allowed the appeal and remitted the action to the Commercial Court to determine in accordance with the guidance in its judgment.
Longmore, Kitchin, Vos LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 367, [2016] Lloyd’s Rep IR 289, [2017] 1 All ER 143, [2016] 2 All ER (Comm) 1058
Bailii
Solicitors’ Act 1974
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal From – AIG Europe Ltd v OC320301 Llp and Others ComC 14-Aug-2015
The Claimants, AIG Europe Limited, seeks a declaration that certain claims brought by many individuals against a firm of solicitors are to be aggregated and thus considered a single claim for the purposes of a claim brought by the firm of solicitors . .
Cited by:
Cited – AIG Europe Ltd v Woodman and Others SC 22-Mar-2017
The parties disputed the effect of a clause aggregating claims for the purposes of limiting an insurer’s liability under professional negligence insurance.
Held: the claims of each group of investors arise from acts or omissions in a series of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Legal Professions, Insurance
Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.562146