At a conference organised by insurance buyers’ association Airmic, Lloyd’s of London chief executive John Neal said he expects the London High Court’s judgement on the business interruption (BI) insurance test case to be appealed, according to a report from Reuters.
He said that due to the complexity of disputes over policy wordings, “cases run for a period of time.” However, he did not elaborate on whether he expected one or both of the sides to appeal aspects of the judgement. He was attending a panel when he was asked if he expected an appeal for the landmark BI case.
Two weeks ago, London’s High Court had concurred with the arguments advanced for policyholders by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on a majority of the issues in the FCA’s BI insurance test case.
In the 162-page judgement handed down, the judges have said that some of the world’s biggest insurers were wrong to reject tens of thousands of claims from small firms battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FCA had brought the case in June against eight insurers including Hiscox, RSA, QBE and Zurich Insurance.
Zurich and Ecclesiastical, a smaller insurer, have said the confirmed they were right to deny policy claims. judgement
However, the FCA and other insurers, several of which have operations in the Lloyd’s of London market, have not formally announced plans to appeal on points they have lost.
Both sides have the chance to present any appeal requests at a hearing on 2 October.
The FCA had said the case could affect more than 60 insurers, 700 different types of policies and 370,000 policyholders, as many policies have similar wordings.
