WHAT’S IN A WORD?

At 8.46am on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre.  Just over a quarter of an hour later, at 9.03am, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower.  Excluding the hijackers, 2,753 people lost their lives and many more were injured.  I remember where I was when I saw the news pictures and experiencing its continuing tragedy when I much later visited Ground Zero.

Whilst the travel restrictions remain with us, the financial loss to the victims’ dependants and the destruction of commercial property was substantial.  Claims were made on insurance policies and a compensation fund was set up to meet uninsured losses.  However, given the extent of the financial loss, legal disputes were inevitable.

Commercial insurance policies will not only have a limit on the cover provided but an aggregation clause that combines losses arising from a particular incident or event.  One issue that arose was the meaning of the word ‘event’.  Had the losses resulting from the Twin Towers terrorist attack arisen from one event or two?  If there were two events, an insurer’s liability would be double.

Closer to home, a similar situation arose when the former Wakefield solicitor, Linda Box, was convicted of defrauding clients of an estimated £4m.  There was a £2m limit on her firm’s insurance policy and an unsuccessful attempt by the insurer to claim that, as the frauds were related, they amounted to one event, limiting its liability.

For the claims arising from the Twin Towers attack, one tribunal decided that there were two events whilst another decided that there was only one.  Whilst these decisions highlight that the application of law to similar facts can, unhelpfully, give rise to different if not conflicting answers, for Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of the Twin Towers site and the developer of One World Trade Center, the difference between there having been one event or two – the value of the word ‘event’ – was $3.55bn.

Simon Ingham qualified as a solicitor in Scotland and now practises in England, specialising in probate and property disputes. If you have a dispute in England & Wales that relates to a will or inheritance, please e-mail NewEnquiries-ContentiousProbate@chadlaw.co.uk  Alternatively, if you have a dispute that relates to land or buildings, please e-mail NewEnquiries-PropLit@chadlaw.co.uk

Otherwise, if you need advice about any dispute – or wish to try and avoid the possibility of disputes arising – please contact us by phone on 0800 015 0340 or e-mail NewEnquiries-Litigation@chadlaw.co.uk