Allianz Insurance Plc v University of Exeter [2023] EWHC 630 (TCC) – 22 March 2023 (Bird J)

The University suffered property damage when a previously undiscovered undetonated German bomb (nicknamed 'the Hermann' after Göring) dropped in 1942 was subjected to a controlled detonation. The Claimant Insurers sought a declaration that the damage was "occasioned by war" entitling them to rely on the policy war exclusion clause. In determining the “proximate cause” of the loss, the Court held the common-sense analysis was that it was caused by the explosion necessitated by the reasonable and correct decision to detonate; that decision was necessitated by the original dropping of the bomb which was the “obvious proximate cause of the damage”.  The damage was “occasioned by war”.