Analysis of LMA5398
About LMA5398
Drafted by the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) and released in May 2020, LMA5398 is a communicable disease exclusion for UK consumer and commercial property risks.
LMA5398 exclusion
LMA5398 excludes loss or damage that is ‘in any way caused by or resulting from’:
- infectious or contagious disease;
- any feat or threat of infectious or contagious disease; or
- any action taken to minimise or prevent the impact of an infectious or contagious disease.
Significantly, the words ‘in any way caused by or result from’ have the effect that the exclusion only applies where the listed items are an actual cause of loss, whether the proximate or remote cause.
Definition of ‘infectious or contagious disease’
The second sentence of LMA5398 defines ‘infectious or contagious disease’ as any disease capable of being transmitted from an organism to another organism. Strictly speaking, however, it is pathogens which are transmitted between organisms and pathogens which cause diseases (since the disease is the condition that affects the organism).