David Pliener and Louis Zvesper, appearing with Ben Lynch KC, Adam Kramer KC, and William Day, act for Stonegate Pub Company Ltd, the largest pub owner in the UK, in the first stage of this landmark Covid business interruption insurance trial. The Claim is for £1.1bn. The Court heard preliminary issues on questions relating to aggregation, causation, and furlough recovery with significant market importance in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Judgment on the Stage 1 Trial was handed down on 17 October 2022.
The Court rejected Insurers' primary case, holding that there was no aggregation to a single virological or epidemiological occurrence and that causation continued beyond the end of the Policy period. Instead, the Court held that losses were in connection with government actions on at least 16 and 20 March 2020 and that these amounted to single occurrences sufficient to aggregate losses. The Court also decided that furlough payments and business rate relief were to be taken into account in calculating any loss.
Stonegate intends to appeal, following which the claim will proceed to 'Stage 2' in order to quantify the recoverable loss. The judgment can be found here, along with the related decisions handed down at the same time in the Various Eateries and Greggs cases.
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