Richard Martin and Lisa Mansfield

RDJ are very proud to have successfully represented the all-risks insurers in one of the most complex and high-profile disputes to come before the Irish High Court in recent years.

The multi-party cross border litigation came before the Irish High Court for hearing in June 2024 and lasted for 10 months.

Irish proceedings

The proceedings, which addressed significant issues arising from the global fallout of aircraft stranded in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the consequent international sanctions, involved complex questions of coverage, jurisdiction and contractual interpretation under both Irish law and the laws of the United Kingdom and five states in the US.

A number of lessors, including SMBC, CDB, Avolon, BOC Aviation, Hermes Aviation, and NAC Aviation, claimed that, following the notification to Russian operators in 2022 that it was terminating their leases, the planes were not returned.

The trial, which started in the High Court in June 2024 and ran for 10 months, involved about €2.5 billion worth of claims, making it Ireland’s highest-value commercial dispute to come before the High Court. Twelve separate legal teams, including more than 200 lawyers, were involved in the proceedings. 

The RDJ team, led by Richard Martin and Peter Lennon, represented 21 international all-risks insurers involved in the proceedings.

The litigation involved a wide range of novel issues including the representation of the same party with different insurance interests by different firms, collateral use of discovery documentation produced by the same parties in seven different jurisdictions, analysis of rules and obligations for witnesses in purdah, practical and constitutional issues relating to certain Russian witnesses whose evidence and identity were anonymised for their security, the application of international sanctions against Russia to partial or complete settlements in the proceedings and the use of mechanisms, including artificial intelligence, to manage vast discovery obligations for over 50 parties to the litigation.

Ultimately, the Irish cases settled with confidential terms before a judgment could be delivered by Ms Justice Roberts. Judge Roberts noted that she “had prepared the longest draft judgment that [she] will never deliver”, but that “such an outcome is always to be preferred particularly where, as here, parties will likely continue to do business together for many years to come”.

UK proceedings

While the Irish proceedings settled before judgment could be delivered, related litigation also progressed through the English courts where Aercap and a number of other lessors initiated legal action in London against a similar number of insurance and reinsurance firms including Lloyds, Liberty Mutual, Chubb, Fidelis and Swiss Re.

Mr Justice Butcher delivered a 230-page judgement on 11 June 2025 concluding that the aircraft were permanently lost due to the war-related circumstances in Russia, entitling the claimants to recover their losses under their war risks policies rather than all-risks policies. As a result, Dublin-headquartered aircraft lessor AerCap reported that they had secured an award of more than €874 million.

Judge Butcher said the central question to the case was whether the cause of any loss of the aircraft was “a commercial decision of the Russian airlines leasing the aircraft”, in which case the all-risks insurers would be liable to the claimants, or “an act or order of the Russian government”, in which case the war risk insurers would also be liable.

Judge Butcher concluded that “the aircraft have been lost” when a piece of Russian legislation, introduced on 10 March 2022, banned the export of aircraft and aircraft equipment from Russia.

Conclusion

Although the medium for the conclusion of the litigation in Ireland and in the United Kingdom was different, all-risks insurers in both jurisdictions were very pleased with the outcome of the litigation.

RDJ are pleased to have been involved in the representation of such insurers in Ireland.

• Richard Martin and Lisa Manfield are partners and Evan Lynch is a trainee solicitor at RDJ LLP.