The question agreed to be before the court was ‘Where an insurer incurs costs in investigating settling or defending claims by his insured, can the insurer recover a proportion of these costs under a quota share or other form of proportional re-insurance?’ the syndicate argued that it was in the nature of a proportional re-insurance contract that the re-insurer takes a part in the entire risk, and that should include the investigation costs.
Held: A Court may not a import clause into a re-insurance clause to give business efficiency as regards the costs incurred by the insurer, of investigating the underlying claim. Though clauses may be added where they reflect undisputed standard commercial practice, the evidence here did not establish such a concensus.
Judges:
Lord Browne-Wilkinson, Lord Woolf, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Hutton
Citations:
Gazette 10-Jun-1998, Times 21-May-1998, [1998] UKHL 18, [1998] 2 All ER 833, [1996] LRLR 353
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Liverpool City Council v Irwin HL 31-Mar-1976
The House found it to be an implied term of a tenancy agreement that the lessor was to be responsible for repairing and lighting the common parts of the building of which the premises formed part. In analysing the different types of contract case in . .
Cited – Scottish Metropolitan Assurance Co Ltd v Groom CA 1924
Reinsurance – claim by owner on original policy – failure by reason of scuttling – judgments against owner for costs – impossibility of recovery – claim on reinsurance policy – sue and labour clause
A ship was reinsured under a marine policy . .
Cited – Insurance Co of Africa v SCOR (UK) Reinsurance Co Ltd CA 1985
An underlying insurance policy covered a warehouse in Liberia against fire, including $500,000 for buildings and $3 million for contents. The warehouse became a total loss. The owners of the warehouse brought proceedings in the Liberian courts. The . .
At first instance – Colin Baker v Black Sea and Baltic General Insurance Co Ltd 1995
Insurance and the reinsurance policies were back to back.
Held: Potter J. said ‘the reinsurer is not liable if the claim settled does not fall within the risks covered by the policy of reinsurance as a matter of law’.
Potter J. accepted . .
At CA – Colin Baker v Black Sea and Baltic General Insurance Co Ltd CA 1996
Otton LJ explained the standard commercial rate of interest: ‘The practice whereby interest is normally awarded at 1 per cent over base rate amounts to a presumption which can be displaced if its application would be substantially unfair to either . .
Cited by:
Cited – Tryg Baltic International (UK) Ltd v Boston Compania De Seguros Sa and others ComC 28-May-2004
Four defendants from Argentina sought to have set aside an order for them to be served, saying the appropriate jursidiction, if there was a triable issue, would be Argentina.
Held: The agreements were to be construed according to English Law. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Insurance, Contract
Updated: 15 September 2022; Ref: scu.78096
