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England and Wales Court of Appeal: COVID-19 a 'catastrophe' requiring neither suddenness nor physical damage; hours clause aggregates a single loss; Unipol v Covéa — £69.3m recovery upheld

Published on: 01 October 2024

Published by a Law360 reporter
Legal News
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Court of Appeal Justices Julian Flaux, Guy Newey and Andrew Popplewell

Appeal Court judges Julian Flaux, Guy Newey and Andrew Popplewell unanimously affirmed a lower court’s decision that an outbreak of infectious disease amounts to a catastrophe under the policy wording, calling the analysis of the reinsurance policy terms ‘plainly correct’. UnipolSai Assicurazioni SpA, or Unipol, had tried to overturn High Court Judge David Foxton’s February 2024 ruling that the pandemic could fit the definition of catastrophe in the business interruption reinsurance policies between Covéa and Unipol, despite the reinsurer arguing that a catastrophe must be sudden, violent, and cause physical damage to a building. Lord Justice Flaux said Judge Foxton had rightly relied on two dictionary definitions of ‘catastrophe’, noting that Unipol’s reinsurance policy with Covéa did not include a definition of the term, and that neither dictionary entry stipulated that a catastrophe had to be sudden...

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