University of Exeter’s WWII bomb insurance claim dismissed
The Court of Appeal today dismissed University of Exeter appeal over damage caused to student halls after the discovery of a WWII bomb during construction work.
In February 2021 contractors working across from the University’s campus discovered an unexploded WWII bomb, it was believed to have been dropped by German forces in 1942.
It was a 1000Kg/2200lb SC1000 thin-cased high explosive bomb. Exeter suffered from a series of bombing raids, as they were the first of the so-called “Baedeker raids”, in which historic British cities, rather than larger industrial centres, were deliberately targeted by the Luftwaffe.
As the bomb was in a degraded state, a decision was made to detonate it onsite in a controlled explosion. However, by doing do, there was damage caused to surrounding buildings, including the University’s halls of residence, leading the University needed to temporarily rehouse students.
The University made a claim under its insurance policy, which was covered by Allianz Insurance, over the physical damage to the halls of residence and the business interruption it caused.
The insurer declined the claim on the basis that the loss fell within the scope of the war exclusion clause, being loss and damage occasioned by war.
The legal action was filed to the court back in January 2022. The High Court ruled in March that Allianz was entitled to a declaration that the University’s claim was not covered by the policy due to the application of the war exclusion.
The University took that decision to the Court of Appeal, however, the court sided with the High Court’s judge decision and as a result, they dismissed this appeal.
Spokesperson for the University of Exeter said: “We are extremely disappointed by the outcome of the appeal hearing. The University believes this was a legitimate insurance claim for damage caused by an incident off-site and outside any control. However, we will accept the judgement.”
Allianz Insurance was contacted for comment.
Article was updated to include comment from University of Exeter