High Court rejects Greek bank’s claim against Lloyds insurer over ship detained in Venezuela
A UK High Court has rejected a Greek bank’s $71m claim against Lloyd’s insurer Antares seeking a multi-million-dollar payout over a ship detained by Venezuelan authorities.
The ruling is set to come as a relief to insurers in setting out that such situations are not covered by war risk policies.
The case comes after Venezuelan authorities detained a Panama register tanker called Zouzou for the more than a year, over suspicions of diesel smuggling.
Athens listed financier Piraeus Bank had mortgaged the vessel, which was insured against war risks for a total sum of $55m.
The policy included one clause setting out that the owners would be deemed to have been fully deprived of provision of the ship without likelihood of recovery, if the ship is detained for a period longer than 12 months.
Thus, after the tanker was held by Venezuelan authorities for 14 months, the Greek bank sought to claim on the insurance under the war risks policy.
The court however ruled that Piraeus Bank is not liable to receive a payout, in a ruling that is set to force shipowners and other to purchase premium insurance packages to protect against similar such cases.