Macaura v Northern Assurance Co Ltd [1925] AC 619
Members have no interest in a company’s property
The owner of a timber estate sold all the timber to a company which was owned almost solely by him. He was the company’s largest creditor. He insured the timber against fire, but in his own name. After the timber was destroyed by fire the insurance company refused the claim.
The House of Lords held that in order to have an insurable interest in property a person must have a legal or equitable interest in that property. The claim failed as “the corporator even if he holds all the shares is not the corporation… neither he nor any creditor of the company has any property legal or equitable in the assets of the corporation.” (per Lord Wrenbury, at pg 633).
Updated 21 March 2026
This article accurately states the legal principle established in Macaura v Northern Assurance Co Ltd [1925] AC 619, which remains good law. The rule that a shareholder has no legal or equitable interest in the assets of a company — and therefore no insurable interest in those assets — has not been overturned and continues to be cited as a leading authority on both the separate legal personality of companies and the requirement of insurable interest. The insurable interest requirement in insurance law has been the subject of Law Commission consideration and some reform in commercial insurance contexts (notably the Insurance Act 2015), but nothing in those reforms has displaced the core principle from Macaura. The article is a concise and accurate summary of the case.
