Insurers mostly win in high profile billion-dollar lawsuit over Covid BI losses

The UK High Court has substantially supported the insurers’ position in a complex billion-dollar lawsuit filed by one of Britain's biggest pubs chain Stonegate,  MS Amlin has said after Monday's judgment over Covid-19 business interruption losses payouts.

Stonegate Pub Company, which owns and operates over 4,500 public houses, bars, restaurants and other hospitality businesses in the UK, sued MS Amlin, Zurich, and Liberty Mutual in a high-profile case that sought a claims settlement of over £1 billion. The three insurers in the case provided coverage for 760 of Stonegate’s establishments.

The pub chain alleged that government ordered lockdowns and restrictions during the pandemic triggered business interruption cover, challenging their interpretation of a number of policy coverage issues.

The case formed part of a series of interlinked trials heard by the Commercial Court in London, and considered among other things whether Stonegate’s losses were limited by the aggregation language in the policy, the extent to which losses were caused by cases of COVID-19 and Government action within the policy period, and whether insurers were entitled to credit for furlough payments received by Stonegate.

On all of these issues the Court has found almost entirely in favour of insurers, officials at MS Amlin have declared.

Johan Slabbert, chief executive officer of MS Amlin Underwriting, said: “We welcome the judgment of the High Court, and believe this brings some genuine clarity to a very complex business interruption case.

“This is a positive outcome for us and is of significance to the entire insurance industry, who I’m sure will be keen to read the full details of the judgment, as issues around furlough payments and aggregation in particular have the potential to have an enormous financial impact for insurers throughout the UK.

“As an insurer upon whom thousands of businesses rely for support, we have always taken our responsibilities extremely seriously. Covid-19 created unprecedented challenges for businesses across the country, and our commitment to helping our policyholders remains as strong as ever.”

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