The joint owners of Fourways Mall have obtained important high court rulings in their attempt to claim more than R1 billion from five insurance companies for business interruption at the struggling super-regional mall linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The five insurance companies all assumed liability to indemnify the owners of the Fourways Mall for loss in various proportions.Judge Manoim said in 2020, like many businesses, the lockdown caused by the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the business of the mall’s owners while also disrupting the businesses of the mall’s tenants, resulting in Azrapart and Accelerate suffering a major loss in rental income.
The principal negotiations about the insurance cover were conducted on behalf of the mall’s owners by the local subsidiary of international insurance brokers firm Marsh and AIG – with Old Mutual, Bryte and Guardrisk “following on”, but with some differences in the limits of their liability . “But on not one occasion were these modifications noticed by the party to whom the document had been sent.”