It has taken more than three years and is likely to have cost tens of millions of pounds in legal costs, but the owners of commercial aircraft stranded in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine should now get paid out. A judgment handed down today in a case brought by AerCap, the world’s largest aviation leasing company, made clear that the lost planes were covered by war risk policies. AIG, Lloyd’s of London and Chubb will have to stump up more than $1bn under the the AerCap policy, according to the Financial Times.
Now this is a lot of money and to most industry commentators was very obviously owed under the policies. However, consider this, the sums due are less than could have been payable if the court had found the insurers liable under the “all risks” policy rather than “war risk”. That there was this confusion in the first place was almost certainly down to imprecise policy wording, a plague in our industry. This kind of confusion also leads to the weird and wonderful scenario where both parties to this particularly litigation, the insured and the insurers, can claim victory today. I suspect there will be plenty more on this over the coming weeks. We will be sure to update the news as we get it.
Mactavish Claims Litigation Index
The Mactavish Claims Litigation Index aims at tracking insurance litigation and claims performance and getting the market to focus on what really matters, the product you buy with your premiums, not just the premium itself.
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