Eleanor Ruiz
Year of Qualified: England & Wales - 2014 and Hong Kong - 2017
Eleanor specializes in complex commercial disputes, insurance recovery and insolvency-related disputes, including professional negligence claims. She represents a broad range of clients, including liquidators, investment and retail banks, corporations, insurance companies and brokers. Eleanor trained and qualified at Reed Smith in London in the Global Commercial Disputes Group, handling general commercial disputes and insurance recovery matters. In 2016 she moved to Hong Kong, where she joined a specialist investigative dispute resolution practice and qualified as a solicitor of the High Court of Hong Kong. There she worked on insolvencies being litigated in the Hong Kong courts, including professional negligence claims involving directors, auditors and other professional service providers. Eleanor returned to Reed Smith in London in 2019, re-joining the Global Commercial Disputes Group. Eleanor was seconded to one of the UK's largest retail banks for six months, advising the business in respect of various disputes and advising on insurance coverage for the settlement of PPI claims.Eleanor is actively involved in pro bono. She participates in legal advice clinics and is part of a large case team working alongside Amicus, helping provide representation for those facing the death penalty in the U.S.
Practice Area
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 2014
Membership
- The Law Society
- IWIRC
Education
- Newnham College, University of Cambridge ' BA (Hons), 2010
- BPP ' LPC, 2011
3 Contributions by Eleanor Ruiz
PRACTICE NOTES
Allocation and Attachment of Losses in Insurance and Reinsurance under English law: policy periods, aggregation, indivisible damage, attachment points, recoveries, and key case law
Allocation
In the context of insurance and reinsurance, ‘allocation’ is the process of identifying which policy covers a loss, or a share of a loss. In many claims this point never surfaces. If a driver wrecks their car, the motor insurance policy in force on the date of the accident will respond. Yet, in the smaller number of cases where it does arise, the consequences can be substantial for a (re)insurer's inwards liability and the availability of its outwards reinsurance.
Consider a business that employs a worker for 40 years. During that period the worker is exposed to asbestos and, after retirement, develops mesothelioma and dies. The estate sues the former employer. The company had workers’ compensation/employers’ liability insurance throughout the employee’s service, but which policy, if any, should respond to the claim?
Or take an insurer that covers a power station which later burns down. The insurer has prudently purchased facultative reinsurance covering the particular risk and treaty reinsurance spanning all of its power station risks, but which responds and in what order?
...
Insurance & Reinsurance
PRACTICE NOTES
Subrogation in Insurance and Reinsurance: Legal Basis, Equitable Lien, Top-down Recoveries, Co‑insureds and Waivers, Limits and Practical Guidance on Pursuit, Allocation and Interaction with Assignment, Contribution and Indemnities
This Practice Note offers guidance on subrogation in the insurance context. It sets out the legal basis, purpose and practical operation of subrogation, and indicates how to tell rights of subrogation apart from other mechanisms such as assignment or contribution. It also considers common situations, including subrogation against co-insureds, the use of express subrogation clauses and waivers of subrogation. In addition, it covers how recoveries are allocated and the insured’s duty to co-operate with insurers.
What is the right of subrogation?
In insurance and reinsurance, the right of subrogation allows an insurer or reinsurer, once it has indemnified the (re)insured, to step into that party’s position and bring proceedings in the (re)insured’s name. For this Practice Note, ‘insurer’ should be read as ‘(re)insurer’ and ‘insured’ as ‘(re)insured’. The insurer may then exercise any of the insured’s rights or remedies against third parties arising from the insured event. After indemnity, the extent of the insurer’s rights and remedies is coextensive with the insured’s against third parties for the relevant loss, including any right in contract (performed or unperformed), tort,...
Insurance & Reinsurance
PRACTICE NOTES
Waiver and estoppel in non‑consumer insurance: underwriting and claims‑handling, fair presentation and proposal questions; subrogation; AI placement; warranties, conditions and reservation of rights; delegated authority
This Practice Note explores waivers in the context of insurance underwriting and claims-handling. Although it chiefly focuses on the law of waiver for a ‘non-consumer insurance contract’ (as defined in section 1 of the Insurance Act 2015 (IA 2015)), it also distils principles from case law concerning a ‘consumer insurance contract’ (as defined in section 1 of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 (CI(DR)A 2012))...
Waiver during the underwriting process
The duty of fair presentation
IA 2015 introduced a duty on the insured to give a fair presentation of the risk to the insurer in relation to a ‘non-consumer insurance contract’. In short, this means the insured must either:
disclose to the insurer ‘every material circumstance which the insured knows or ought to know’; or
‘failing that, disclosure which gives the insurer sufficient information to put a prudent insurer on notice that it needs to make further enquiries for the purpose of revealing those material circumstances’
A circumstance is material ‘if it would influence the judgement of a prudent insurer in determining whether to take the risk and, if so, on what terms’. In light of limb 1) above, the...
Insurance & Reinsurance
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