Chubb Insurance Company of Australia Limited v Moore (No 2)

Chubb Insurance Company of Australia Limited and other plaintiff insurers sought declarations regarding the application of section 6 of the *Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946* (NSW) to insurance moneys payable under their policies. The defendants, the Transform Claimants and the PDS Claimants, were claimants in separate proceedings who sought to access these insurance moneys. The dispute concerned whether section 6, which allows a claimant to proceed against an insurer directly where the insured is unable to satisfy a judgment, applied to the specific insurance policies and claims in question. The matter came before the Court of Appeal of New South Wales.

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether section 6 of the *Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946* applied to insurance moneys that might become payable by the plaintiff insurers to the defendants in respect of claims made in the Transform Proceedings and the PDS Proceedings. This involved determining the scope and effect of the statutory provision in the context of the particular insurance policies and the nature of the claims being made.

The Court of Appeal, in answering questions removed to it on a stated case, declared that section 6 of the *Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946* did not apply to the insurance moneys in question. The Court reasoned that the statutory provision was not intended to operate in the circumstances presented, particularly given the nature of the policies and the claims. The Court also considered the question of costs, noting that while the questions were of significant continuing interest to the plaintiff insurers and had been removed to the Court of Appeal, the other parties had shared some measure of success.

Consequently, the Court ordered that the Transform Claimants and the PDS Claimants jointly and severally pay 50 per cent of the plaintiffs' costs of the proceedings, including the proceedings in the Court of Appeal.