This is a small victory for the Crédit mutuel-CIC. On April 22, the bank-insurer had sown discord in the small community of insurers deciding to pay a “premium recovery mutual” to all its clients professional, insured against the operating loss in the wake of the epidemic of Covid-19. The announcement was highly criticised by its competitors. The profession believed that a pandemic was inassurable and that she was therefore not supported by the contracts of operating loss. Competitors of Crédit mutuel had been quickly accused to pay a premium in order to hedge against the ambiguity of one of its contracts, referred to as Mahogany. An “exception clause” of this contract spreads in effect any compensation in case of damage caused by a ” micro-organism “, but its validity in the case of the crisis of the coronavirus had been challenged.
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Thursday, June 18, the court of Annecy is entered in the application for interim relief – an emergency procedure – by the company Les Adrets, owner of the tavern “The two mules” installed in La Clusaz, has refused to rule in his favor. The conservator of eight employees and achieving 100 000 euros of turnover per year, owner of the famous contract of Mahogany, had in effect refused the prime stimulus with a mutual fund of 20 000 euros proposed by the Crédit mutuel without pre-condition. The court therefore considered that there was no urgency to settle despite a threat of expulsion of the owner of the premises and a bank account in the red at 15 (- 24 895 euros).
Unlike the Paris commercial court, in the case that pitted the conservator Manigold to Axa, the commercial court of Annecy, therefore, refers to a future judgment on the merits : “the court hearing The application the judge of the evidence and does not have the authority to settle this dispute,” he wrote. And refused to order the payment of an allowance of 40, 000 euros for the restorer in the name of the emergency. The restaurateur has been ordered to pay 3 000 euros for the Crédit mutuel.
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If the latter had won a battle – his contract does not in an obvious way, the operating loss in the exceptional circumstances of the crisis of the Covid, he has not won the war. Only a judge on the merits can decide whether or not to the application of the cover of the operating loss in such cases.
A survey of the regulatory authority of the insurers, the ACPR, is meanwhile underway to inform the insured on the exact nature of their contracts. Even if it does not have the power to interpret individually the contracts, his remarks, very expected at Bercy, will be scrutinized with a magnifying glass.
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Restaurant insurance : survey on open war
