Box office smash: aggregation dismissed

• The Supreme Court has rejected the indemnity insurers’ appeal in Guide Dogs for the Blind v Box, after the Court of Appeal ruled that the insurers could not aggregate claims for compensation against a firm of solicitors following the theft of client funds over many years.
• The decision confirms that insurers will not be able to limit their liability in circumstances where a solicitor has committed the same kind of infraction on a number of occasions.

Also known as Baines v Dixon Coles & Gill, last year’s Court of Appeal decision in Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and others v Box and others [2021] EWCA Civ 1211, [2022] 2 All ER 1032 generated considerable interest among solicitors generally, and the professional negligence and indemnity insurance community in particular. Now, the Supreme Court has dismissed the insurers’ application