Context
The FCA has released further updates in the Business Interruption test case. The first, issued on 2nd November in respect of the appeal to the Supreme Court, and the second, issued on 4th November, in relation to the publication of documents for policyholders.
Key points to note
2nd November 2020
- The FCA maintains its opinion that this “leapfrog” appeal to the Supreme Court is the fastest way to get legal clarity for all parties.
- The appeal in the Supreme Court will be heard from Monday 16th November via video link and is expected to last for four days.
- Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Plc has confirmed that it will not be appealing the High Court’s judgement in respect of the RSA4 wording. As a result, Hospitality Insurance Group Action has confirmed that it will not be seeking to intervene in the Supreme Court appeal.
- The FCA confirms that discussions remain ongoing to find a solution with insurers which resolves the outstanding issues, before the appeal takes place, which will enable pay-outs on eligible claims.
4th November 2020
- The FCA has published resources to assist in the navigation and understanding of the information which it has published previously in respect of the test case in general as well as the High Court judgement and the High Court declarations. These resources include:
- Item 1 – A table which sets out the appeal status and the most relevant declarations and paragraphs of the judgment according to policy type in the representative sample. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/bi-insurance-test-case-table-appeal-status-declarations-policy-type.pdf
- Item 2 – The representative sample of policy wordings with a contents page, which can be navigated to by clicking on the policy type in the table (see Item 1 above). https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/bi-insurance-test-case-representative-sample-of-policy-wordings-9-june.pdf
- Item 3 – A contents list for the High Court judgment. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/bi-insurance-test-case-contents-list-high-court-judgment.pdf
It is important to note that the documents are not definitive or legally binding and are designed to provide easy navigation of the large amount of information that has been published in relation to the test case to date.