Insurance & Reinsurance
Much of Benedict’s work contains an insurance element of some kind. Benedict has experience in a wide range of ‘pure’ insurance disputes arising from W&I, CAR, D&O, professional indemnity, buildings, and public and employer’s liability policies, involving issues such as coverage, estoppel, co-insurance, late notification, and policy voiding.
On a recent secondment to a directory-ranked policyholder-side boutique firm, Benedict was involved in the following matters:
- A W&I coverage dispute valued in the millions of pounds;
- A complex D&O matter involving issues of Queensland (Aus) law;
- An early-stage W&I matter valued in the tens of millions of pounds;
- A professional indemnity coverage dispute involving a Maltese financial services firm.
Recent insurance instructions include the following:
- CAR – advising (led by Daniel Shapiro KC) on coverage and quantum in a complex claim put at over £2,000,000 arising out of the replacement of a seemingly defective low temperature hot water heating system at a luxury London residential development. Involved consideration of the DE3 exclusion and a suite of other exclusions;
- Co-insurance and CAR – (during pupillage) assisted Ben Quiney KC and Alex Macpherson in a claim arising out of a flood at a luxury London property development. Issues included the availability of a co-insured defence to a sub-contractor where the main contractor had taken out CAR insurance per Haberdashers‘ Aske’s Federation Trust Ltd v Lakehouse Contracts Ltd;
- Co-insurance – advising on the application of Berni Inns to various property damage claims arising out of floods and fires;
- Landlord insurance – advising a landlord policyholder on coverage in respect of an intimated claim for nuisance causing dry rot due to a long-undetected leak. Involved consideration of coverage estoppel on the basis of representations made by the insurer as to coverage;
- Buildings insurance – acting for the successful insurer at a buildings insurance coverage trial in a claim brought under the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010 in relation to negligently performed building work which had given rise to flooding. Benedict successfully demonstrated that all of the damage was excluded under an ambivalently worded defective work exclusion on a proper construction of the policy;
- Buildings insurance – acting for the successful insurer at a buildings insurance coverage trial involving the applicability of various exclusions including those for ‘gradually operating causes’;
- Notification – advising on the prospects of a declinature for late notification by a property management company arising out of a series of leaks and floods at a residential block being upheld;
- Fraud, policy voiding – advising on the prospects of raising fraud for a series of claims made in relation to damaged agricultural equipment which was suspected to result from wear and tear but which was alleged to have been caused by distinct accidents in dubious circumstances;
- Broker’s negligence – (on secondment) advising on a prospective claim against brokers for placing inadequate D&O cover with unusually onerous exclusions compared to market norms;
- Broker’s negligence – (during pupillage) drafted a Defence on behalf of an insurance broker specialising in luxury yacht insurance in an additional claim brought by an insurer for the broker’s failure to ask sufficient questions to elicit the insured’s claims history;
- Broker’s negligence, fraud – (during pupillage) assisted Daniel Shapiro KC and Carlo Taczalski in a claim brought by an insured against its broker for fraudulently representing that the insurer had agreed to an indemnity which involved the falsification of various documents. Issues concerned the broker’s vicarious liability for a rogue employee and attribution of the rogue employee’s dishonesty to the brokering firm;
- Employer’s liability – (during pupillage) assisted James Medd with a claim involving a landscape gardening insured making material misrepresentations about the nature of its business. The claim arose from a gas pipe explosion which caused a sub-contractor to suffer third-degree burns over his entire body;
- Public liability – (during pupillage) advised on whether coverage was triggered where a contractor had delegated hot roofing work to a bona fide sub-contractor and the sub-contractor had failed to take safety precautions which were conditions precedent for the contractor’s coverage under the policy;
- Business interruption – (during pupillage) advised on Covid-19 business interruption coverage for a beauty salon claiming under a ‘hybrid clause’ which was triggered upon the manifestation of a notifiable disease at the insured’s premises. Involved complex issues of causation in light of FCA v Arch as the insured could evidence the presence of Covid-19 at the premises at the start of the pandemic but not thereafter while it remained closed;
- Late payment under s. 13A(1) Insurance Act 2015 – (during pupillage) advised an insurer on liability for an alleged breach of its duty to pay a claim within reasonable time. The claim concerned the payment of an indemnity for reinstatement of a flooded home and the insured alleged that the delay in payment led to the development of a fungal respiratory infection due to having to live in a damp home.
Selected Cases
View full profile »Awards
- Academic Scholarship, Oriel College (2017-2019)
- Oriel College Prize for Finals results (2019)
- Finalist (top 12 of over 100 essays), Times Law Awards (2020)
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Qualifications
- BA Jurisprudence (Double First, 9/250 in cohort); Oriel College, University of Oxford
- Bachelor of Civil Law (Distinction); Oriel College, University of Oxford
- Bar Vocational Studies (Distinction); City, University of London
