In judgments consulted by AFP, the Court annulled three decisions of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal dated May 20, 2021, in favor of three companies, Alpilles Events based in Mouriès, A La Bonne Franquette (Martigues), and Beraha. (Marseille), in disputes between them and Axa.
The Court of Cassation referred the case to the “differently composed” Court of Appeal, which will have to rule again.
The highest French court has found valid the exclusion clause provided for in the “professional multi-risk” insurance contract signed by these catering companies, on which Axa relied to not compensate its operating losses due to the administrative closures ordered due to Covid-19. 19 epidemic.
These contracts cover the risk of operating losses following “an ordered administrative shutdown as a result of a contagious disease, murder, suicide, epidemic or poisoning.”
But a clause provides that the insured is deprived of the benefit of the guarantee, in the event that “another establishment is subject to an administrative closure measure for the same reason” to those listed.
50 other appeals before the Court of Cassation
For the Court of Cassation, this exclusion clause is, in effect, “formal and limited” and does not “have the effect of emptying the guarantee of substance”, which the restorers claimed, considering that this implied its nullity, that certain court rulings , in the first and second instance, had validated.
Axa immediately welcomed this “important” decision by the Court of Cassation, “which establishes the validity of (its) standard contract,” the insurer said in a press release.
However, there are currently another 50 appeals before the Court of Cassation, an Axa spokeswoman told AFP.
Source: BFM TV
