A 21st Century Jarndyce & Jarndyce?
Jarndyce and Jarndyce was of course the fictional court case in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Foster Leighton was recently involved in a case which had latter day similarities with the famous Dickens saga. Both involved the fate of a large inheritance, and had been dragging on interminably because of problems in winding up the Estate. That is until Foster Leighton became involved.
The circumstances involved a large property. On the death of the owner, Solicitors acting for the Estate insured it under a Law Society scheme for unoccupied property. Unfortunately, the property was broken into by local children who set several fires. As a result, the Law Society’s insurers cancelled cover on the property. The Executors subsequently decided to demolish the house and sell the site for redevelopment. In the meantime squatters briefly occupied the property but were evicted before the demolition. The insurers then relented and reinstated Public Liability on the land, but refused to back-date the new insurance to the cancellation of their previous policy. This left the Executors with a considerable period of time when there was no insurance protection should a claimant come forward and claim to have been injured on the property. Frantic attempts were made by the Executors and their solicitors to place some retroactive cover to no avail. This left them unable to wind up the Estate as it was impossible to quantify what liabilities might arise at some time in the future.
This is where Foster Leighton came into the story after others had failed. Using the considerable London Market contacts of Willis, we were able to put together a presentation to the market and interest several Lloyds Underwriters in bridging the cover gap with suitable Retro Public Liability Insurance. As a result the Executors were able to wind up the Estate and distribute the proceeds to the beneficiaries. As one of the Executors, himself a solicitor said “This really is excellent news! Thank you so much for your tenacity in this; it will hopefully enable us to progress at last to a realistic conclusion of the administration of the estate. Many thanks for your efforts here- exemplary, especially in the light of the feeble efforts of your competitors!” Glad to be of service!
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