London court orders AXA to pay restaurant owner for Covid-19 losses

LONDON: French insurer AXA must compensate the owner of London’s Wolseley restaurant for several incidents of business interruption due to COVID-19, London’s High Court said on Friday in a case closely watched by other policyholders.

Britain’s Supreme Court ruled last year that many insurers had been wrong to deny thousands of companies, battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, business interruption payouts.

But the ruling did not cover all policy wordings and, where it deemed claims valid, some companies were disputing payout levels.

Corbin & King, the owner of London restaurants including the Wolseley and the Delaunay, was suing AXA in a dispute that hinged in part on the scope of “denial of access” cover, designed to protect insured venues that are shut by public authorities on health grounds.