19/10/2022

Success in landmark business interruption insurance case

Greggs Plc v Zurich Insurance Plc [2022] EWHC 2545 (Comm) (17 October 2022)

Christopher Hancock KC, Simon Milnes KC and Courtney Grafton successfully represented Greggs in a landmark business interruption insurance case.

On 17 October 2022, Butcher J handed down judgment in a preliminary issues trial in Greggs’ claim against Zurich for over £150 million in business interruption losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The main issue in dispute was the proper approach to aggregation. Zurich’s primary case was that there was only one “single occurrence” under the policy, entitling Greggs to recover only £2.5 million. Butcher J rejected this and accepted in substantial measure Greggs’ primary case that losses should be aggregated by reference to government measures. Butcher J set out seven points to assist parties in identifying which government measures constitute “single occurrences”.

Judgment in Greggs’ preliminary issues trial was handed down alongside the judgments in two other cases which raised similar issues (Stonegate v MS Amlin and Various Eateries v Allianz).

Christopher Hancock KC, Simon Milnes KC and Courtney Grafton were instructed by Manoj Vaghela, Charlotte Pender, Hannah Gornall and Rory Partridge at Charles Russell Speechlys.

Read the judgment