Commercial Court considers ‘any one loss’ wording in business interruption insurance

Adam Kramer KC and William Day appeared for the Arena racecourse group in a second preliminary issues trial in Bath Racecourse & Ors v Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe, judgment in which was handed down yesterday: [2025] EWHC 1870 (Comm).

The Bath Racecourse litigation concerns business interruption losses stated to be in excess of £80 million arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The claimants’ racecourses and greyhound tracks were shut down during the pandemic including by directions from their sports regulators, the British Horseracing Authority and the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (the BHA and the GBGB, respectively).

There were three issues before the Court: (i) whether a reference to actions of “competent authority” in the cover included the BHA and the GBGB (despite their not being public bodies); (ii) how the limit expressed to be “any one loss” applied in the circumstances (following the earlier Court of Appeal confirmation that it applied separately to each insured Claimant under the composite policy), and (iii) how the arbitration agreement worked in circumstances where it was only stated to apply where liability was “otherwise admitted”.

Adam and Will were successful on behalf of the Claimants in persuading the Court that, properly construed, “competent authority” included the BHA and the GBGB and that the arbitration agreement was not engaged since all aspects of liability were not admitted at the start of the proceedings. The Court engaged in a detailed analysis of how “any one loss” limits apply for business interruption insurance claims, accepting the Claimants’ case that “any one loss” applied per trigger of the cover for each venue (e.g. separately to a golf course than a hotel where owned by the same Claimant), although not per cancelled race meet.

Adam and Will were instructed by Aaron Le Marquer and James Breese of Stewarts. An appeal from the first preliminary issues trial on the question of furlough payments will be heard by the Supreme Court.