Series claim
A clause grouping into one claim every demand arising from a single cause, under one deductible and one limit.
Mediator: withdrawn from the French market in November 2009 after more than thirty years on sale, thousands of claims spread over more than a decade, a Paris criminal court judgment on March 29, 2021. Tied to a single originating cause, those claims fall under one deductible and one limit. That is what a series clause does: it makes one event of every claim flowing from the same technical cause, the same design defect or the same breach, however many victims there are. It cuts both ways: one deductible instead of a thousand, which helps the insured, but one limit as well, which can leave it short on a series bigger than its annual cover. In product, medical and professional liability, where a single defect can generate claims for fifteen years, the wording decides everything: the originating cause, the year the series attaches to, and what happens to claims made after cancellation.
The Mediator litigation shows the mechanism at work: the drug was withdrawn from the French market in November 2009 after more than thirty years on sale, and thousands of individual claims spread over more than a decade, the Paris criminal court handing down judgment on March 29, 2021. Tied to a single originating cause, those demands fall under one deductible and one limit.
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