Covid-19: Judgment on pubs’ insurance case against FBD due in January

Judgment will be given on four important test cases brought by pub owners over insurer FBD’s refusal to pay out on business disruption over the Covid-19 pandemic early in the new year.

The four publicans have brought cases challenging FBD Insurance PLC’s refusal earlier this year to indemnify them, and the insurer’s stance that its policies of insurance do not cover the disruption caused to businesses by Covid-19.

The actions have been taken by Dublin bars Aberken, trading as Sinnotts Bar; Hyper Trust Ltd, trading as The Leopardstown Inn and Inn on Hibernian Way Ltd trading as Lemon & Duke.

The fourth action was taken by Leinster Overview Concepts Ltd, the owner of Sean’s Bar in Athlone, Co Westmeath.

More than 1,000 Irish pubs and bars are affected by the dispute, which arose after the insurer refused to provide them with cover since the pandemic resulted in the temporary closure of businesses in mid-March.

On Friday afternoon, following the conclusion of the three-week hearing, presiding judge Mr Justice Denis McDonald said he hoped to be in a position to deliver his decision in mid-January.

Insurable risk

The pub owners taking the test cases claim that under their policies of insurance taken out with FBD, they are entitled to have their consequential losses covered by what they argue is an insurable risk.

They also claim that by failing to pay out on the policy, the insurer is in breach of contract.

The publicans claim the policies taken out with FBD contain a clause that states the pubs will be indemnified if their premises are closed by order of the local authority or Government if there are “outbreaks of contagious or infectious diseases on the premises or within 25 miles of same”.

FBD disputes that claim and says the closures did not occur as a result of an outbreak of disease at the premises or areas where the pubs are located. FBD also told the court that it had never provided cover for pandemics and no one in Ireland had ever asked for it.

The general insurance market in Ireland does not insure against events such as pandemics, it claims.

Only specialist brokers based overseas, he said, offered such policies on a bespoke basis to cover the fall-out from something such as Covid-19, FBD argued.