The Federal Court has confirmed that the second COVID-19 business interruption (BI) insurance test case will most likely conclude by the end of the year.
During a Wednesday hearing on the nine test cases running alongside QBE Insurance Australia’s (QBE) COVID-19 insurance case, Chief Justice James Allsop claimed that the test cases had been “carefully structured” to ensure that an appeals court could hear an appeal in November and then issue a judgement by the end of 2021.
Allsop explained that adding QBE’s case to the other test cases makes sense to maximise the likelihood that the appeals court could rule on any issues raised by the QBE case when it starts in November, according to Lawyerly.
QBE filed a case to the Federal Court on April 08 against Melbourne-based travel agency Education World Travel (EWT) – which went into liquidation on November 30 last year – and its liquidator David Coyne.
The insurance giant argued that the policy did not cover EWT’s claim for losses caused by the first COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in 2020 and subsequent lockdowns in the state. It also seeks declarations that section 61A of the Property Act 1958 applies to the policy, so that its references to the Quarantine Act should be construed as referring to the Biosecurity Act.
Justice Jayne Jagot said she was willing to allow the parties in the cases to be heard on the 61A issues raised by QBE.
“It has to be brought forward in all cases where it can be brought forward,” Justice Jagot said, as reported by Lawyerly. Justice Jagot also confirmed that she would tack on three days to the August hearing in the test cases after concerns were raised about the length of the hearing.
Meanwhile, Justice Allsop said he would vacate the July 22 and 23 hearing dates in the QBE case after receiving no objections to adding it to the other test cases.
