In a decision involving a broker who introduced business to a medical scheme, the court drew an important distinction between a mandate to enter into contracts on behalf of the medical scheme as the principal and a mandate or authority to introduce business to the medical scheme. Where a principal appoints someone to perform juristic
November 2022
Business interruption insurance: commencement of the Indemnity Period (UK)

In this English court judgment, the parties were in dispute whether the Indemnity Period begins with the commencement of the interruption or interference with the insured business or with the occurrence of the Covered Event.
The definition of Indemnity Period in the policy read:
“Indemnity Period means the period of time during which interruption…
No general enrichment claim is recognised in South African law

The Supreme Court of Appeal has reaffirmed that there is no general enrichment action recognised in South African law. The fact that one person is enriched at the expense of another does not automatically give rise to a claim for damages for loss suffered to the benefit of another person.
Enrichment actions may be specifically…
Rental, covid-19 and impossibility to pay rent


In this judgment the Supreme Court of Appeal decided that the lessor was entitled to evict its tenant as a result of non-payment of rental because the tenant’s pleas that it could not pay rent because of the Covid-19 pandemic could not excuse non-payment from September 2020.
The court said that it was trite that…
“In connection with”: Insurance policies (UK)

In this October 2022 UK high court judgment, the court, in considering the meaning of the words “in connection with” in an aggregation clause, said that they denote that only a relatively loose link is required. A wide range of losses might potentially fall to be aggregated as being at least “connected with” an…
Covid-19 business interruption claims, savings and government assistance (UK)

In these October 2022 judgments (judgment 1 and judgment 2), the court held that government furlough payments were to be deducted from loss calculations as savings. The insured’s argument that the payments were simply a reimbursement of employment costs was rejected.
The courts had regard to the basic rules of a contract of…
Business interruption claims and Additional Increased Cost of Working (UK)

In this October 2022 judgment, the English high court found that the cover for Additional Increased Cost of Working (AICW) was limited to those costs incurred by the insured that were not “economic” Increased Cost of Working (ICW). The costs are economic if the increased costs and expenses have the effect of diminishing or…
South Africa’s expectations at COP27


The 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27) will be held in the Republic of Egypt during November 2022. Despite current geopolitical tensions, disruption of global supply chains, general inflation and an energy and food crisis it is hoped that for South Africa, COP27, which is being described as an ‘African COP’…
Loss of use of computer server is not tangible physical loss (US)

The insured claimed that the cost it incurred in migrating its customer data to other servers when its cloud service provider went insolvent entitled it to claim damages under a property insurance policy. A court rejected the claim on the grounds that the losses incurred were not damages resulting from “tangible, physical loss”…
Prescribed rate of interest is 9.75% from 1 November 2022

The prescribed rate of interest changed with effect from 1 November 2022 to 9.75% per annum. The previous rate was 9.0%.
According to the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act, interest on debts where no rate is prescribed is calculated at the repo rate plus 3.5%. The prescribed rate of interest applies to all debts unless…