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Insurance
Simon is instructed to advise and litigate a broad range of cases, encompassing fraudulent claims, disputes as to the interpretation of policies, and questions as to compliance with policy conditions including notification clauses. He is frequently instructed directly by insurers to advise on policy issues. He also deals with all forms of subrogated recovery work, claims pursuant to the Third Party (Rights Against Insurers) Act, and public liability claims with a particular emphasis on losses by fire and flood.
Recent instructions include:
- Defending insurers who dispute their liability to provide indemnity in favour of financial advisers facing multi million pound liabilities in group litigation (settled at a 2 day mediation at which Simon was briefed, all other parties instructing Leading Counsel);
- Successfully defending a major insurer in relation to a product liability claim which had not been properly notified (claim discontinued) and defending Lloyds insurers against a contribution claim brought by co-insurers in relation to a major loss sustained in the USA.
Recent liability cases include an action arising out of a serious fire in the centre of Canterbury (Shepheard Neame and others v EDF and other, tried by Akenhead J in January 2009). Simon was instructed on behalf of electrical contractors, who were joined to the action late, and released from it, on confidential terms, during the trial. He has also acted for the Defendant in a claim relating to the destruction by fire of a listed building, involving questions of the liability of children and the extent of an adult's duty to supervise (instructed by Greenwoods).
Simon is currently retained on behalf of property insurers in a series of test cases in relation to the content of the common law duty of an electricity provider, which are proceeding in the TCC.