HIH Casualty and General Insurance Ltd v Chase Manhattan Bank
HIH Casualty and General Insurance Ltd v Chase Manhattan Bank [2003] UKHL 6 is an English contract law case concerning misrepresentation.Chase Manhattan Bank was in the highly speculative business of lending money against receipts from five future movies (in this case, Amy Foster, U Turn, Apt Pupil, The Mirror Has Two Faces and The People vs. Larry Flynt).In submitting that phrase [6] does not deny the insurers their usual legal remedies for negligent misrepresentation by Heaths, the insurers drew sustenance from the well-known principles propounded by Lord Morton of Henryton giving the judgment of the Board in Canada Steamship Lines Ltd v The King [1952] AC 192 at 208.But, as the insurers in argument fully recognised, Lord Morton was giving helpful guidance on the proper approach to interpretation and not laying down a code.In the case of Biffa Waste Services v MEH (2008), Lord Ramsey observed that the guidelines established in Canada Steamship Lines v The King had been emphasised by Bingham to be "helpful guidance on the proper approach to interpretation and not laying down a code ...".