OMAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Abdulredha Al Lawati, Zainab Al Lawati, Daniyal Khalid and Aoun Al Zadjali, ALC Lawyers & Counsel
4.2 Policy Wordings and Interpretation Developments General Approach Omani courts interpret insurance policies under the contractual rules in the Civil Transactions Law, sub- ject to mandatory insurance legislation. Article 165 requires clear wording to be applied according to its terms; where ambiguity remains, the court seeks the parties’ common intention by reference to the nature of the transaction, custom and the standards expect- ed between contracting parties. Article 166 addresses doubt, including in adhesion contracts, but a negoti- ated commercial policy should not automatically be treated as an adhesion contract. In substantial commercial insurance, the schedule, general conditions, special conditions, endorsements and extensions must be read together. A court may therefore need to determine not only what an exclu- sion, limitation or condition means, but how it inter- acts with the remainder of the policy. The contractual analysis is then subject to mandatory insurance law: Article 58, for example, restricts specified forfeiture and other policy conditions. Coverage disputes may therefore involve separate questions of interpretation and enforceability. Endorsements and Timing A specific endorsement or special condition may modify a general provision, but only to the extent indicated by its wording. Where the endorsement states that remaining terms continue unchanged, the modification should ordinarily be confined to the mat- ter addressed. Timing is also important: the relevant policy documents are those effective when the insured event occurred, unless retrospective effect is clear- ly established. Where a policy has been repeatedly extended or amended, the court must reconstruct the terms actually in force on the relevant date. Arabic Wording Article 60 requires policies issued in Oman to be in Arabic or accompanied by an identical Arabic trans- lation and gives the Arabic text particular importance in interpretation disputes involving an Omani insured. For international policies, inconsistency between the schedule, English wording, Arabic wording and endorsements can therefore be determinative. The
broader drafting issues are discussed in 1.2 Role of Policy Wording and Drafting . 4.3 Cyber and Technology-Related Coverage Issues Cyber-risk insurance is expressly recognised as a class of general insurance under Omani law, but there is not yet a developed body of publicly reported Omani coverage decisions dealing specifically with cyberloss. Relevant disputes are therefore likely to turn principally on the individual wording and the ordi- nary rules of contractual interpretation. Potential issues include whether a cyber-event falls within dedicated cybercover or property, business interruption, crime, professional indemnity or liabil- ity insurance; whether physical damage is required; and the treatment of data restoration, system inter - ruption, incident-response costs and failures of third- party technology providers. Oman’s data-protection framework may also generate notification, investiga- tion and remediation costs. For related liability and data-protection developments, see 5.2 Shifting Risk Landscape and 8.3 Data Protection Laws . 4.4 Aggregation and Limits of Liability Aggregation disputes are not yet the subject of a sub- stantial body of publicly reported Omani insurance judgments. They are, however, increasingly relevant in substantial property, construction and engineering, marine, energy and business-interruption claims, par- ticularly where a single factual event affects several insured assets, locations, cargoes or insured parties. There is no separate general statutory aggregation test applicable to insurance disputes in Oman. The analysis therefore begins with the policy wording and the ordinary Omani rules of contractual interpretation. Definitions of “event”, “occurrence”, “loss”, “series of losses” and “originating cause”, together with any applicable time, territorial or location provisions, can determine whether several losses are treated collec- tively or separately. The characterisation can materially affect both parties. Aggregation may allow several losses to attract a sin- gle deductible, but may, at the same time, bring them within one limit of liability. Conversely, treating losses
208 I NSURANCE L I T IGATI O N 2026
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