High Court sets hearing date for BI test case application

3 October 2022

The High Court of Australia will hear arguments mid-month around allowing further appeals on the covid-related business interruption test case.

The court, which had previously said it would hear oral arguments on whether to grant special leave to appeal, has scheduled the hearing for October 14.

It’s expected lawyers from both sides will have 20 minutes to present cases, with the High Court justices likely to make their decision on the application on the day.

Special leave to appeal applications have been filed by two policyholders and one insurer to appeal parts of the judgment of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia in the Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA) second industry test case.

The Full Court’s judgment on February 21 substantially upheld the arguments of insurers in four of the five matters in the test case that were appealed.

“As always, the ICA and directly impacted insurers will be analysing the outcome of the hearing and implications for members,” ICA says.

The appeal applications are for The Taphouse Townsville v Insurance Australia Ltd, LCA Marrickville v Swiss Re International and Insurance Australia Ltd v Meridian Travel.

The court on the same day will also hear a special leave to appeal application from The Star Entertainment Group following the Full Court’s decision in favour of Chubb and other insurers.

If the court accepts the cases for further consideration, the actual appeal hearing would likely be scheduled for next year and a decision handed down after that.