Niramax contests Zurich ‘refusal’ over machete attack

Niramax Group is in a dispute with Zurich over a £4.8 million claim for a fire at a recycling plant that the insurer has refused to pay because a shadow director of the waste management company was convicted for a machete attack.

Law360 has reported that Niramax has lodged documents with the High Court in London dismissing Zurich’s reason for not paying out for the fire at the Hartlepool-based recycling plant in 2015, because the waste management company failed to disclose that shadow director Shaun Morfitt was sent to prison in 2010 for wounding another person with a 16-inch machete.

Zurich reportedly refused to pay the £4.8 million claim because Morfitt was involved in another waste management company that made sales to Niramax in 2014 and 2015. Niramax should have known about Morfitt’s conviction, according to insurer.

Niramax dismissed this argument in its filing in the High Court, arguing that “Morfitt’s commission and conviction for unlawful and malicious wounding were not material to be disclosed, and in particular were not material to the moral hazard that the claimant would pose as an insured”.

Zurich and Nirmax have yet to comment publicly on the dispute.

Subscribe to the Claims Weekly newsletter and receive the latest claims news and analysis every Monday:

[yikes-mailchimp form=”1″]

Mark Dugdale