Allianz Insurance Plc, which earlier this year triumphed at the High Court of Justice over the University of Exeter in the proceedings that centred on an unearthed and detonated bomb, has also won at the Court of Appeal.
As reported by Insurance Business in March, the case involved the university’s denied claim over the damage and business interruption it suffered from a bomb detonation at a construction site beside its premises more than two years ago.
At the time, Judge Bird said: “If the bomb had exploded when it landed (and if the damaged buildings had been there), the conclusion that the bomb was the proximate cause of the damage would have been inevitable. Does the reasonable and necessary human act of detonating the bomb change that analysis? In my view, it does not.
“It is the presence of the bomb that leads to both the need for the detonation and the inevitability of the damage. As a matter of common sense, the dropping of the bomb and its consequent presence at the site, was the proximate cause of the damage.”
It was noted that the bomb was dropped in Exeter by German forces in 1942, prior to it being discovered in 2021 during building works. The controlled detonation was conducted after it was determined that the bomb could not safely be moved.
When the claim was declined, Allianz pointed to the policy’s war exclusion clause.
Now, in a further win for the insurer, the Court of Appeal ruled against the appellant on Thursday. A report by the Financial Times cited Lord Justice Coulson as ruling that the passing of time did not reduce the bomb’s potency.
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