(Adds details, background)
By Kirstin Ridley and Carolyn Cohn
LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - London's High Court on Friday
approved a fast-track appeal of an unprecedented test case
against some of the world's biggest insurers, brought by
Britain's markets regulator, allowing it to leapfrog straight
into the Supreme Court.
The decision was expected, but nevertheless spells further
delays for thousands of struggling businesses battered by the
coronavirus pandemic, who had hoped a judgment delivered two
weeks ago would lead to prompt payment of disputed claims.
At a webcast hearing on Friday to hammer out how judges
should word court orders to reflect and distil last month's
complex, 160-page judgment, judges approved the necessary
certificate to allow the highest court to consider the case.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) brought a case against
eight insurers in June to clarify whether 21 policy wordings,
affecting potentially 700 types of policies, 60 insurers,
370,000 policyholders and billions in insurance claims, covered
disruption and government-ordered closures to curb the virus.
Judges examined policy wordings that cover business
interruption when insured premises cannot be accessed because of
public authority restrictions, in the event of a notifiable
disease within a specified radius -- and hybrid wordings.
The FCA said the judgment ruled mainly in the favour of
policyholders, although some insurers were more circumspect, and
subsequent negotiations over which policies should now pay out
collapsed on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Louise Heavens)
