High Court ruling starts reinsurance claims worth $1bn
The High Court has ruled that Equitas can use mathematical models in $1bn of reinsurance claims against Randal & Quilter relating to Exxon Valdez and the first Gulf War, the FT reports.
The claims relate to insured losses it suffered in the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in 1989 and the losses of British Airways and Kuwaiti Airlines aircraft during the first Gulf war.
The FT said the closely watched test case would trigger the processing and payment of thousands of individual reinsurance claims in the London insurance market that have been in limbo since the mid-1990s.
Claims will start to flow
“After almost 15 years of impasse in relation to the Exxon and Kuwait claims, this judgment should mean that hundreds of millions of dollars of claims in the reinsurance market can start flowing again,” said Efstathios Michael, partner at Slaughter and May, which acted for Equitas.
The court case covered claims that were initially bundled together but that were later ruled as separate insurance events. Unbundling them proved complicated. Equitas can now use actuarial modelling to achieve that.
Randall & Quilter Reinsurance Company, which is Equitas’s reinsurer, had opposed the move.
