Bugged by the millennium. Already, major companies, including GTE Corp., Unisys Corp. and Xerox Corp., have taken things a step further, resorting to legal action to back their sue and labor claims. Predictably, insurers are outraged. Coverage was never intended at the time of the policy. Our policies specifically include data corruption.
Most people disagree about that.
Derived from English law, sue and labor clauses were originally intended to persuade shipowners to salvage wrecked vessels when cargo was speedily deteriorating at the bottom of the sea. The clause placed the onus on the shipowner to take all reasonable steps to recover the cargo while allowing him to reclaim any expenses incurred while doing so. For years these clauses went unused, but insurers never bothered to take them out of commercial contracts. Now the December Seattle notice has started a stampede. But she estimates that the eventual bill could be far higher.