Legal Articles and Guides

With a national death toll of more than 41 000 since March last year, life insurance companies have paid out hundreds of millions of rands in Covid-19 death claims.

Insurance group Santam says it has started the process of assessing claims related to contingent business interruptions due to Covid-19, including those previously rejected in the months after the national lockdown commenced in March.

In yet another setback for insurers, Old Mutual Insure has lost a case against a Cape Town retailer of luxury travel goods that took it on after it refused its business interruption claim following the closure of its flagship store at the V&A Waterfront and other outlets due to Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown.

A last-minute bid by Santam’s lawyers to have Guardrisk’s SCA Covid-19-related business interruption insurance hearing against Café Chameleon postponed so that it could join the appeal in the landmark matter, failed in the SCA yesterday.

SA's largest short-term insurer Santam has, as expected, decided to apply for leave to appeal last week’s decision by a full Bench of the Western Cape High Court that it is liable to pay a hospitality client its full Covid-19 business interruption losses, including those related to the lockdown.

A multimillion-rand litigation battle is brewing between insurance giant Discovery Life and a gynaecologist, who is headed to court on Friday.

A motorist with two million-rand cars was so irked when he found they were too expensive to qualify for a R505 bonsella that he submitted a formal complaint.

Hospitality group Ma-Afrika Hotels, together with Stellenbosch Kitchen and Insurance Claims Africa (ICA), are likely to wait at least a month for a ruling in the high-profile business interruption cover battle against JSE-listed insurance giant Santam, following the Western Cape High Court reserving judgment on the matter yesterday.

The Western Cape High Court is set to hear a watershed case today in which companies in the hospitality industry are challenging the rejection of insurance claims relating to losses incurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The insurance industry regulator might yet follow the lead of its international counterparts and take a test case to the SCA to deal with the issue of business interruption claims once and for all.

It’s no surprise that our media has been awash with reports on the recent High Court judgment of Cafe Chameleon CC v Guardrisk Insurance Company Ltd (5736/2020) [2020] ZAWCHC 65 around a restaurant’s business interruption cover claims.

Insurance giants Santam and Hollard announced over the weekend plans to offer interim relief to thousands of hard-hit small and medium businesses in the tourism and hospitality sector that have business interruption insurance policies with contagious and infectious diseases cover, says a Moneyweb report.

As expected, Guardrisk is to appeal the Western Cape High Court ruling that ordered the company to pay out the business interruption claims of Cape Town restaurant, Café Chameleon.

With business interruption insurance policies still the subject of court action, the financial services regulator has struck a telling blow for hundreds of small businesses facing ruin because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown by threatening action against short-term insurers refusing to pay out on claims caused by losses resulting from the pandemic.

Cafe Chameleon, a Cape Town restaurant, is the first to win a court case against an insurer for payment of damages arising from a business interruption policy due to the Covid-19 pandemic, says a Business Day report.