Property Damage
Benedict has experience dealing with a wide range of property damage matters involving fire, flood, chemical spills, road traffic accidents, and other incidents, which overlap greatly with his insurance practice. Much of his advisory and drafting work involves subrogated recoveries.
Recent instructions include:
- Oil spill – advising and drafting the Particulars of Claim for a nuisance claim valued in excess of £150,000 arising out of a leak of heating oil in agricultural and holiday let buildings;
- Oil spill – drafting a Defence on behalf of fuel tank engineers in a claim brought in respect of a substantial fuel leak at a large lorry depot;
- Flood – drafting a Defence on behalf of a plumber who had allegedly failed to properly insulate a copper pipe which burst at primary school;
- Flood – advising and acting on behalf of the Claimant in a case involving an escape of water at a luxury London lingerie boutique involving a contentious contents and loss of profit claim. Benedict successfully obtained favourable settlement of the claim at close to its full value following exchange of skeleton arguments;
- Flood – (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 all-risks project insurance;
- Fire – advising on the application of Berni Inns to a lease in a subrogated claim following a fire at a quasi-charitable social housing property which had been started by a third party;
- Fire – settling the Particulars of Claim in a fire damage mixed property damage and personal injury claim involving the failure of an electrical component in a washing machine;
- Fire – (during pupillage) advising on a prospective subrogated claim concerning a defective switchboard component which caused a fire at a domestic property. A claim under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 was time-barred and the advice concerned which parties to pursue out of the component’s manufacturer, retailer, installing electrician, and maintaining electrician;
- Fire – (during pupillage) advising on the merits of a prospective subrogated claim where an insured’s leisure centre was heavily damaged by fire seemingly caused by a sub-contractor during hot roofing work;
- Fire – (during pupillage) advising an insurer on quantum in a claim brought by an insured for an indemnity after its private psychiatric ward burnt down. Involved issues of compensating advantages/collateral benefits and betterment, as the ward the insured proposed to reinstate would have been more profitable than the destroyed ward;
- Tree root subsidence – advising on limitation in a complex tree root subsidence claim with contentious causation evidence;
- Animals – drafting a Defence in an unusual claim relating to the escape of a heifer from a slaughterhouse which led to significant damage to property, including to third party motor vehicles when the heifer re-appeared on a motorway several weeks after its escape. Benedict also acted for the successful Defendant at trial;
- Cavity wall insulation – drafting Defences and acting in various CWI cases;
- Vermin – (during pupillage) drafted a Defence on behalf of a self-storage company in a claim involving a vermin infestation which led to the Claimant’s stored property being damaged and contaminated with droppings.
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
