COVID-19 Business Interruption Insurance returns to The Supreme Court

On 1 July 2025 the Supreme Court (Lords Briggs, Leggatt and Burrows) gave permission to appeal in Bath Racecourse v Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe on whether insurers are entitled to deduct the value of furlough payments from COVID-19 business interruption payments to insurance policyholders. The issue is estimated to be worth billions to the market and will affect nearly every outstanding BI insurance claim from the pandemic. In the Court of Appeal, Flaux C rejected the policyholders’ case that furlough receipts were not within the scope of policy’s savings clause (see previous news item). The appeal in the Court of Appeal was one of The Lawyer’s Top 10 Appeals of 2025.

Adam Kramer KC and William Day continue to act for the policyholders instructed by Aaron Le Marquer, James Breese, Arjun Dhar and Claudia Seeger of Stewarts.