Texas Yacht Owner Loses Insurance Appeal Over Forum Clause

A Texas yacht owner lost his insurance appeal against Spheric Assurance Co. after the Fifth Circuit sided with the insurer that the case should’ve been brought in a different venue.

“This action properly belongs in the British Virgin Islands, the forum agreed to by the parties in the Policy, and Spheric’s place of incorporation,” the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said on Wednesday, upholding a lower court’s decision.

Marine insurance disputes garnered attention this year as the US Supreme Court agreed to take on a Munich Re unit’s choice-of-law dispute with a Pennsylvania yacht owner. That case ...