Arabtec Construction LLC and Belhasa Six Construct LLC (ABJV) on a multi-billion insurance claim

Summary

We represented the defendants in a multi-billion insurance claim over a fire incident at one of Dubai’s most prestigious hotels, the Adress Downtown, Dubai.

Details

Our clients, Arabtec Construction and Belhasa Six Construct were the parties to a joint venture which constructed the Address Downton hotel that got severely damaged by fire during a New Year’s Eve celebration.

The damages, valued at AED 1.245 billion (USD 338 million), were initially borne by the developer and later recovered from the insurance company as part of a settlement for the accident. However, the insurance company filed a civil lawsuit at Dubai Courts to recover the amount claiming the contractors failed to implement fire safety requirements. The court-appointed panel of five experts concluded that no liability should be borne by the defendant.

A ruling in favour of the Defendants was upheld by the Dubai Court of Appeal on 13 September 2022.

In August 2023 the Dubai Cassation Court, the highest judicial institution in the emirate, has handed over the final decision in this case, finding in favour of our clients, the defendants, and ending this complex and drawn-out dispute.

How we added value

Our team played an important role in the successful resolution of the case by drawing out a key point found by the panel that it had been proven that the claimant (the insurance company) was reinstated to its original position by the re-insurance companies.

Further, the complex nature of the experts’ reports and the overall process are testament to how technically saturated this dispute was and our ability to translate this successfully to the court demonstrates our profound construction sector knowledge, which was pivotal to the outcome of the case.