The Wackiest Insurance Claims From 300 Years Ago
Aviva recently marked their 325th anniversary and to celebrate, they revealed the strangest claims that they have received from companies covered by its business insurance policies across the decades!
A few of the quirky claims unearthed for the 325th anniversary of Aviva’s Commercial Lines business include:
- Up in smoke: We paid a claim for £1,000 following the Dundee whisky fire of July 1906. The fire started in the warehouse of whisky merchant James Watson & Co. and eye-witnesses described rivers of burning whisky flowing through Dundee.
- The Great Train Robbery: On 7 August 1963, a mail train from Glasgow was stopped by a signal between Leighton Buzzard and Cheddington in Buckinghamshire and £2,595,291 in used notes was stolen from the train. We insured some of the securities stolen in the Great Train Robbery, and paid out £1,091,340 10s 0d – or £59 million in today’s money1.
- Gone with the wind: Farm workers were carrying sheets of corrugated iron in a high wind. A young apprentice of small build was given a large sheet which caught hold of a gust of wind and lifted the employee and the sheet across the yard, only to drop him to into a liquid manure storage tank. According to the claim, “the employee’s clothes were ruined.”
- Flying sheep: In 1960 we paid a claim to a shop owner for a broken showroom window for an incident involving a sheep running through the door of the showroom, taking a flying leap through the plate glass window and disappearing.
- Liquid gold: In 1975 a whisky firm put in a claim for missing whisky – which it turned out was being syphoned off by an electrician!
- Ouch! In 1961 we paid a claim from a dentist who was kicked out of a window by a patient coming round from an anaesthetic.
- In 1878 a hotel keeper in London suffered a blow to the eye from the cork of a bottle of champagne he was opening. He successfully claimed £25 10s, or £20,120 in today’s money1.
- Lock him up: In 1996 we insured Woody the Cuprinol man who appeared in the company’s adverts. When he was stolen and later recovered, we advised the special effects company which owned him to lock Woody up at night.
- In 1984 we paid a claim for a fishmongers’ van which was caught in the Siege of the Libyan Embassy. It was parked nearby and could not be moved until the siege ended by which time the fish had rotted.
Source: https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2022/01/peculiar-claims-famous-firsts-and-celebrated-customers/
If you are unfortunate enough to suffer a loss, our friendly team are here to guide you through the claims process and liaise with insurers on your behalf – saving you time, stress and worry and ultimately, ensuring your peace of mind.
Contact us by Telephone on 01403 785775 or via Email on info@omnidavis.co.uk. We’d be delighted to hear from you!
