Simon Bierton, owner of The Red Lion in Sturmer, has been awarded £207,112 by the High Court in the pub landlord’s business interruption clash with AXIS Specialty Europe.
EssexLive reported that the abovementioned amount, which was said to be the maximum damages, came about following a lack of response from the insurer and its failure to meet a legal deadline. Bierton had to temporarily close the Essex-based pub in 2020 and was met with COVID-19 Tier 3 rules when he resumed operations.
“We were right on the cusp of the border,” he was quoted by EssexLive as saying, “so the majority of our customers were in Tier 2 and we were Tier 3, so we were closed while just up the road everyone else was able to trade.
“We were lucky that we had been well established, and doing takeaways helped us to stay afloat. We employed 10 people, so we were concerned for them too. It was basically two years of sleepless nights worrying about what would happen. We lost a lot of revenue – over £200,000.”
According to the publication, the decision was reached in AXIS Specialty Europe’s absence as a result of a breach in civil procedure rules when the insurance company failed to meet the court’s deadline. Barings Law, which represented Bierton, said the insurer did not respond to communications regarding liability.
