The prescribed rate of interest changed with effect from 1 January 2023 to 10.5% per annum. The previous rate was 9.75% per annum. 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 … Continue reading
The insured sought loss of hire coverage from various US and London insurers claiming in part that its factory processing vessel was unable to process fish in Alaska because of engine damage. The court held that the insured had breached an express duty to cooperate by withholding from the adjuster’s historical financial information, thus discharging … Continue reading
In October 2022 the English Court of Appeal held that the Republic of South Africa is not entitled to state immunity in the context of a claim relating to 2 364 bars of silver recovered from the seabed of the Indian Ocean, having been lost in the 1942 sinking of the SS Tilawa sailing from Bombay to … Continue reading
In December 2022 the Constitutional Court held that a High Court may not decline to adjudicate a matter over which both it and the Magistrates’ Courts have concurrent jurisdiction. Where a number of banks had brought actions for the enforcement of credit agreements in the High Court where the amounts at stake fell within the … Continue reading
The insured drove a forklift decorated like a float with his wife on a swing hung from the forks to celebrate her 50th birthday, surrounded by partygoers. It was held that his liability for running over a party guest’s foot was covered because it was not excluded coverage for bodily injury arising out of mobile … Continue reading
An Australian supreme court was faced with the question whether a sub-subcontractor was a named insured or agent of the named insured under a general liability policy relating to demolition work on a construction site where a fire attributed to the conduct of the sub-subcontractor caused damage. The court held that on the policy wording … Continue reading
In Viceroy Research Partnership LLC and others against the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, the Financial Services Tribunal was faced with the question whether the FSCA had the authority to impose administrative penalties jointly and severally on three partners in a foreign partnership who were not South African citizens nor residents, and the acts allegedly committed … Continue reading
Several dog owners sued the City of Council Bluffs, Iowa, challenging the constitutionality of an ordinance prohibiting pit bull dogs, and lost. The City enacted an ordinance in 2005 which prohibited “any person to own, possess, keep, exercise control over, maintain, harbor, transport or sell within the City of Council Bluffs, Iowa any pit bull. … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
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” but were … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
The interpretation clause in a policy of insurance included a provision that “references to a statute law also includes all its amendments or replacements”. The Australian Quarantine Act had been replaced by the Bio Security Act, 2015 before the policy came into force but was held to be a replacement statute. The court held that … Continue reading
The claim arose from efforts to recover gold from the wreck of the SS Islander which sank off the coast of Alaska in 1901 carrying gold valued at the time at $6 million. One party to a joint venture recovery company withheld computer data, photographs, videos, imaging, readings, logs and journals downloaded on a media … Continue reading
The family of a student, who died in 2014 when the Donetsk People’s Republic, a Russian-backed separatist group in eastern Ukraine, shot down Malaysia Airline’s Flight 17, sued Western Union for damages for “providing ongoing and essential financial support to the DPR by facilitating money transfers”. The court held that Western Union could not recover … Continue reading
South African readers will be interested to hear that, according to a recent article in Insurance Day,severe delays at the UK Financial Conduct Authority in approving senior hires are causing strife and harming competitiveness. System errors are allegedly also leading to threats of fines that are unwarranted and later withdrawn. Part of the problem is … Continue reading
The insured sought cover under a catastrophe umbrella policy when a claim under the underlying policies had been dismissed for late notice. The umbrella policy covered “any claim alleging bodily injury, personal injury or property damage, insurance for which is not afforded by the underlying policies”. The court held that the word “afforded” in the … Continue reading
A burst boiler pipe at a hotel resulted in mould damage to the property. An exclusion stated “damage caused solely by mould is not covered under this policy”. The court found that the language “caused solely by” indicates a distinction between mould as a loss and mould as a cause of the loss. The triggering … Continue reading
An Australian Supreme Court dismissed a claim for a contribution by one insurer against another because the earthmoving plant loader that was involved in the accident was being operated at the time as a mechanical tool of trade. A tool of trade was defined to mean “the operation of your motor vehicle whilst engaged in … Continue reading
A Montana Supreme Court rejected an extraordinary claim by the insured who had kidnapped, physically assaulted, threatened, restrained and injured his estranged wife using the insured vehicle in the course of the kidnap. The court had no difficulty in finding that the insured’s conduct was not accidental for the purposes of the policy and that … Continue reading
The insured company represented by its sole director and shareholder agreed to construct a residential aged care building on the property. The company failed to disclose at a material time that the company was in severe financial distress and unable to meet its obligations including tax obligations. The Australian Federal Court held that the failure … Continue reading
Where a Directors and Officers Policy provided that the insurer was not liable in connection with any claim based on “any circumstance which was known about by any of the Directors or Officers or Company prior to the Period of Insurance”, it was held that the word “circumstance” meant a circumstance which was known by … Continue reading
An Australian federal court held that where a director failed to disclose the financial distress of his company to the prejudice of the other contracting party under a constructions contract, the director “gained personal profit or advantage” for the purposes of an exclusion of the Directors and Officers Policy and no claim was payable by … Continue reading
An Australian federal court held that an email intimating a claim against the insured under a Directors and Officers Liability Policy to a mailbox that was not attended to was nonetheless “received” by the insured for the purposes of the policy. The claims made policy defined a ‘Claim’ as a “written notice received by a … Continue reading