Ted Baker v AXA Insurance [2012] EWHC 1406 (Comm)
Eder J handed down judgment on 25 May 2012 in this £4m insurance claim arising out of the theft of stock by an employee. The main issue was whether employee theft was covered by the AXA policy, which had been intended to replicate the cover provided by a previous insurer (which AXA contended did not cover employee theft). The court heard extensive factual and expert evidence and concluded that the losses were covered, notwithstanding that the policy did not include discrete Fidelity Insurance and that AXA asserted it had charged no premium for this type of cover. The judgment considers in detail what evidence is admissible in the construction of an insurance policy and the extent to which an intention to replicate previous cover is relevant. It also dealt with AXA’s defences based on rectification and estoppel by convention and co-insurers’ separate defences that the scope of the AXA cover had been misrepresented to them by the brokers.
Richard Lynagh KC and James Medd, instructed by Kennedys, represented the insurers.
Click here for the judgment.
