Sheep trick...325 years of weird and wonderful payout claims
A DENTIST being kicked out of a window and a sheep jumping through glass are among claims dealt with by a company marking 325 years in commercial insurance.
Aviva has revealed the unusual but valid reasons as it marks the milestone, including one case in 1878 when a hotel keeper in London suffered a blow to the eye from the cork of a champagne bottle he opened.
He successfully claimed £25 10s, which is £20,120 in today’s money.
In 1960, Aviva said it made a payout to a shop owner for a broken showroom window relating to an incident involving a sheep.
The animal ran through the door before taking a flying leap through the plate-glass window and disappeared.
The following year, the company paid a claim from a dentist who was kicked out of a window by a patient coming round from an anaesthetic. Nick Major, managing director of Aviva’s commercial lines, said: “As our records show, we’ve seen the strangest and most unusual claims, which goes to show that planning for the unexpected is good business practice.” The firm insured some of the securities stolen in the Great Train Robbery in 1963 and paid out £1,091,340 10s 0d – equivalent to £59million now. And in 1984, a claim was paid for a fishmonger’s van which was caught up in the siege at the Libyan embassy. It was parked nearby and could not be moved until the stand-off ended, by which time the fish had rotted. Mr Major added: “Aviva has played an important role helping businesses protect what’s important to them, enabling them to continue to trade through good times and bad. “This is something we have continued to focus on through the Covid-19 pandemic.”