Insurance

In a case arising out of claims concerning damage to a warehouse during the London riots of 2011, two preliminary issues were before the court. First, whether the losses claimed by the claimants, insofar as proved, arose out of the injury to, or the destruction of, a building or the destruction of any property therein, by any persons riotously and tumultuously assembled together within the meaning of s 2(1) of the Riot (Damages) Act 1886 at the warehouse on 8 August 2011. Second, whether consequential losses, including loss of profit and loss of rent, were in principle recoverable pursuant to s 2(1) and/or 2(2) of the Act. The court ruled, first, that the group of youths who had attacked, looted and set fire to the warehouse had been “persons riotously and tumultuously assembled together” within the meaning of the Act. There was no doubt that the elements of the statutory offence of riot were satisfied. Second, the correct construction of the statute