Yorkshire pudding factory and bakery owner William Jackson & Sons Ltd, of Hull, has failed in its High Court bid to claim £1m in damages from insurance broker Oughtred & Harrison (Insurance) Ltd.
William Jackson claimed £1,188,674 from Oughtred after the property suffered a serious fire in July 1995.
The claimant says that a provision in the insurance contract limited the claim by reference to the reinstatement value of the property, and prevented it from claiming the full amount of losses, allegedly £2,804,883.
William Jackson launched legal action to recover the difference, claiming that the reinstatement value of the whole property had been set at £4.4m in May 1993, instead of £7.38m.
It was also contended that the broker was negligent in failing to advise William Jackson to undertake an independent valuation of the whole site once the redevelopment work was completed.
In the High Court yesterday, Morison J said: “I have to confess that, from the outset, this claim had all the appearances of being contrived. I became more convinced of this having heard the evidence.”
Describing the grounds as “far-fetched”, he added: “While I can understand that for accounting purposes it would have been sensible to have a new site valuation to ascertain the sites value on the open market after the redevelopment, such was not called for and William Jacksons contentions are an unfair attempt to shift the blame for what happened from the independent valuer to the broker.”
William Jackson & Son plc v Oughtred & Harrison (Insurance) Ltd (Morison J) Queen’s Bench Division 11 July 2001.
Julian Flaux QC and Timothy Kenefick (instructed by Rollit Farrell & Bladon, of Hull) appeared for the claimant; Michael Douglas QC (instructed by Fishburn Morgan Cole) appeared for the respondent.
PLS News 12/07
