AIG Europe SA v QBE International Insurance Ltd [QBD (Comm)]
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Moore-Bick J. |
| Judgment Date | 03 May 2001 |
| Neutral Citation | [2001] EWHC 491 (Comm) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court) |
| Date | 03 May 2001 |
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Before Mr Justice Moore-Bick.
Jurisdiction - whether reinsurance contract demonstrated consensus as to jurisdiction of disputes - court must look at commercial background of agreement
Where a court was determining whether the general words of a reinsurance contract, which incorporated the terms of the underlying contract, demonstrated an agreement between the parties that the term of the underlying contract providing for exclusive jurisdiction of disputes applied to the reinsurance contract, thereby satisfying the requirements of article 17 of the Brussels Convention 1968, it had to take into account the background and commercial context of the agreement.
Mr Justice Moore-Bick so held in the Queen's Bench Division when dismissing an application by the defendant, QBE International Insurance Ltd, for a declaration that English courts had no jurisdiction to determine a claim made against it by the claimant, AIG Europe SA, for wrongful termination of a contract of reinsurance and an order setting aside service of the proceedings on the ground that the parties had agreed in accordance with the requirements of article 17 of the Convention that the courts of France were to have exclusive jurisdiction over contractual disputes.
Mr Neil Calver for the claimant; Mr Adam Fenton for the defendant.
MR JUSTICE MOORE -BICK said that general words in a reinsurance contract incorporating the terms and conditions of the underlying policy could not necessarily be taken as demonstrating clearly and precisely the existence of a consensus, as required under article 17, concerning clauses which were ancillary to the substance of the contract.
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