Following the horror of Sept. 11th’s terrorist attacks, the country now begins to shift its focus to returning to some degree of normalcy. Part of that shift will include assessing the massive damage incurred as a result of these hostile acts.
In that vein, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Mike Oxley, R-Ohio, has drafted a letter to insurance regulators urging insurers not to exercise the acts-of-war exclusion to deny coverage relating to these attacks.
We believe the following article, taken from the FC&S Bulletins, will help to clarify how the war exclusion should apply as we explain various court interpretations of the exclusion.
While no court decisions involving the exact language of the war exclusion clause in the current commercial property forms have arisen at this time, there are decisions involving other, past war exclusion clauses that do permit some reliable conclusions to be drawn.
