Armstead v Royal Sun Alliance Insurance Company Ltd: The Interface between The Winkfield and Conarken

Abstract

In Armstead v Royal Sun Alliance Insurance Company Ltd, the Court of Appeal considered the limits of the ‘proprietary fiction’ established by The Winkfield, allowing bailees to recover loss through their possessory title of bailment property against a wrongdoer. Despite the decision being defensible on its facts, the Court of Appeal failed to clarify: (i) whose consequential loss the bailee can recover, or whether the bailee and bailor possess ‘one set of rights’; (ii) the interface between the recoverability of third‐party contractual liabilities in tort and the rules of bailment; and (iii) the nature and scope of the ‘proprietary fiction’ established by The Winkfield. This note argues that the bailee's claim against the wrongdoer arises solely from the possessory title (without reference to the bailor) and the ordinary rules of tort should apply after establishing such title.