When there’s more than one insurance policy, you’d better double-check the cover, say Chris Bates & Jordan Ball
- A recent case has provided clarity on the complex question of the available indemnity when the same loss is covered by more than one insurance policy.
- In a decision likely to be welcomed by insureds, the court confirmed that there is no issue in principle with taking out multiple insurance policies against the same loss.
- For insurers, the decision highlights the importance of including ‘rateable proportion’ clauses in policies if seeking to limit the available indemnity.
In Watford Community Housing Trust v Arthur J Gallagher Insurance Brokers Ltd [2025] EWHC 743 (Comm) (a broker’s professional negligence claim), the court shed some valuable light on the tricky issue of multiple insurance where insureds have cover for the same loss under more than one policy.
The facts
The claimant was a housing association and the defendant was its insurance broker. In March 2020, one of the claimant’s employees inadvertently emailed personal data of 3,544 of its tenants and employees
