@YNWA
A blockbuster insurance trial between two Premier League clubs and their insurers will not come to pass as Arsenal and Liverpool agreed to settle their claims.
The pair were the final holdouts in a slew of business interruption claims dating back to Covid-19 and the impact that lockdown had on their finances.
The case was set to go to a six-day trial in February. Partners from Clifford Chance and Blackstone Chambers barristers were gearing up to take on several insurers advised by teams from Slaughter and May and 7KBW.
The results of the settlement are confidential, but the initial claim was thought to have been worth almost £100m.
Clifford Chance partners Philip Hill and Christopher Ingham were instructing Blackstone Chambers’s Andrew Green KC and Gayatri Sayathi on behalf of both Arsenal and Liverpool.
The insurers – which included Allianz Insurance, Aviva Insurance, CNA Insurance, Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe, MS Amlin Underwriting and Zurich Insurance – turned to Slaughter and May partner Nick Bonsall and 7KBW’s Alistair Schaff KC, Simon Kerr and Henry Moore.
The claims related to payments under business interruption insurance policies and losses the clubs claimed to have suffered as a result of Covid-19. They sought declaratory relief and indemnities from the six insurers over interruption and interference with their businesses during the pandemic.
While each club claimed insurance for losses that they independently suffered under Covid restrictions, the substantive similarity in their policy wordings and losses suffered led them to band together against their insurers.
Arsenal and Liverpool were left standing as the sole Premier League holdouts in the case after a raft of other clubs settled similar claims earlier this year. Aston Villa, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United all settled their claims.
Wordley Partnership partners Paul Wordley, Alison Proctor and Costas Frangeskides, and associate Arnas Urbutis were drafted in to negotiate a settlement on these clubs’ behalf.
Manchester United
Brøndby IF