Birketts EC3Legal – Aggregation: a £10m question

Author - Emily Osbourne

Spire Healthcare Limited v Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Plc [2020] EWHC 3299 (Comm) - HHJ Pelling QC handed down his judgment in December in relation to a dispute on aggregation in a combined liability policy underwritten by Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Plc (RSA). Spire Healthcare Ltd (Spire) paid out substantial sums for medical negligence claims, and sought an indemnity from RSA under the insurance policy. Spire aggregated its losses into two groups of cases when submitting the claim on the basis that the claims were attributable to two separate original causes, however RSA considered the losses should be aggregated into one group as the claims were attributable to one single originating cause.