ORAC
19th Dec 2023, 07:18
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/exeter-university-to-pay-for-damage-from-nazi-bomb-tjhl0jxh9
Exeter university to pay for damage from Nazi bomb
A university has to pay for the damage caused by the controlled detonation of an unexploded German bomb because its insurer deemed it an act of war.
Exeter University wanted to make a claim after the Second World War explosive, discovered on land next to a halls of residence, damaged buildings and led to the temporary rehousing of students.
The blast from the 1,000kg bomb threw debris at least 800ft (250m) and left a crater the size of a double-decker bus. However, Allianz, the university’s insurer, has refused to pay out under its “war exclusion” policy.
The university took the firm to the Court of Appeal but judges have rejected its claim that the exemption should not apply to historic conflicts.
In their judgment, the court of appeal judges wrote:
“The loss and damage in February 2021 resulted from two concurrent causes of approximately equal efficacy.
“One was the dropping of the bomb in 1942. The other was its controlled detonation almost 80 years later. It was the combination of these two causes which made the loss inevitable, or at least in the ordinary course of events.”
The judges said that neither would have caused the loss without the other.
“Although [the bomb] may never have exploded as it deteriorated, it may have done: we simply do not know,” the judgment said. “But we do know, from the subsequent events, that the effluxion of time did nothing to reduce the potency of the bomb.
“Following its discovery, the relevant authorities had no sensible option but to attempt a [controlled explosion] in order to minimise any potential damage. The decision would obviously never have been made if the bomb had not been there, and remained live, in 2021.
“It might be said that, at that point, the bomb did what it was always meant to do.”…..
Exeter university to pay for damage from Nazi bomb
A university has to pay for the damage caused by the controlled detonation of an unexploded German bomb because its insurer deemed it an act of war.
Exeter University wanted to make a claim after the Second World War explosive, discovered on land next to a halls of residence, damaged buildings and led to the temporary rehousing of students.
The blast from the 1,000kg bomb threw debris at least 800ft (250m) and left a crater the size of a double-decker bus. However, Allianz, the university’s insurer, has refused to pay out under its “war exclusion” policy.
The university took the firm to the Court of Appeal but judges have rejected its claim that the exemption should not apply to historic conflicts.
In their judgment, the court of appeal judges wrote:
“The loss and damage in February 2021 resulted from two concurrent causes of approximately equal efficacy.
“One was the dropping of the bomb in 1942. The other was its controlled detonation almost 80 years later. It was the combination of these two causes which made the loss inevitable, or at least in the ordinary course of events.”
The judges said that neither would have caused the loss without the other.
“Although [the bomb] may never have exploded as it deteriorated, it may have done: we simply do not know,” the judgment said. “But we do know, from the subsequent events, that the effluxion of time did nothing to reduce the potency of the bomb.
“Following its discovery, the relevant authorities had no sensible option but to attempt a [controlled explosion] in order to minimise any potential damage. The decision would obviously never have been made if the bomb had not been there, and remained live, in 2021.
“It might be said that, at that point, the bomb did what it was always meant to do.”…..