Gosford City Council v GIO General LTD

Gosford City Council (the Council) and GIO General Ltd (GIO) were parties to a dispute concerning a professional indemnity insurance policy. The Council sought indemnity from GIO for claims made against it, which arose from occurrences during the policy period but were notified to GIO after the policy had expired. The matter was heard by the Court of Appeal of New South Wales.

The central legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether the Council was entitled to indemnity under the "claims made" professional indemnity policy for claims notified after the policy period, and whether the Council had complied with the policy's requirement for immediate notice of any occurrence that might give rise to a claim. The Court also considered the application of sections 40 and 54 of the *Insurance Contracts Act 1984* (Cth) to the circumstances.

The Court of Appeal held that the policy was a "claims made" policy, meaning that indemnity was only triggered if a claim was made against the insured during the currency of the policy. The Court found that the Council had failed to give GIO immediate notice of the occurrences that might give rise to a claim, as required by the policy. This failure was not excused by section 54 of the *Insurance Contracts Act 1984* (Cth), as the Court determined that the Council had not established that the failure to give notice was not reasonably avoidable or that it had not prejudiced GIO. Consequently, the Council was not entitled to indemnity.

The appeal was dismissed with costs.