Live: Supreme Court rules largely in favour of policyholders in FCA's BI test case battle
Free content: Access market and insurance reactions to the Supreme Court ruling that dismissed appeals against a High Court judgment on insurers paying out in Covid-related disruption on business interruption insurance policies and overturned the Orient Express ruling.
The Supreme Court dismissed insurers’ appeals in the Financial Conduct Authority’s business interruption test case on Friday, bringing to a close a six-month legal battle.
The court also “substantially” allowed the appeal of the FCA, which had been representing the interests of policyholders in the case.
It also overturned the landmark 2010 Orient-Express Hotels v Assicurazioni Generali ruling, concluding that it had been “wrongly decided.” Insurers had argued that the High Court’s judgment undermined the precedent set by the ruling.
Up to 370,000 policyholders are likely to be affected by the outcome of the case, according to the regulator’s estimates.
Appeals to the Supreme Court followed a judgement handed down in September by the High Court after initial hearings in July involving eight insurers, namely Arch, Argenta, Ecclesiastical, Hiscox, MS Amlin, RSA, QBE and Zurich.
The appeals of six of these insurers as well as the regulator were fast-tracked to the Supreme Court, bypassing the Court of Appeal, and were heard over four days in November.
More to follow...
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