One of the strangest claims that an insurance company has ever paid is for sheep leaping through shop windows.
After the animal made a leaping attempt through the glass of the showroom’s window, it was broken and the owner received a check.
A case from 1878 saw a London hotelkeeper get a knock to the eye by the cork in the champagne bottle he was opening.
A shop owner was paid a settlement in 1960 after his sheep made a leap through the showroom’s plate glass, smashing it and fleeing. (file photo).
He successfully claimed £25 and ten shillings – or £20,120 in today’s money.
Aviva Insurance has released a list of valid, but unusual claims that it has handled during its 325-year anniversary.
Another bizarre claim was made from 1961 by an unfortunate dentist, who was kicked from a window when he saw a patient undergoing anaesthesia.
The company also has paid for the worst and most tragic events in British history.
Some of the banknotes that were stolen from the Great Train Robbery in 1963 by a gang including Ronnie Biggs, was insured. The train was on its way to London when it was attacked by a group of thieves. Aviva paid out £1,091,340 and ten shillings – or £59million in today’s money.
In 1984, a claim was made for the delay caused by a van of fishmongers that was captured in the attack on the Libyan embassy at London after the death of PC Yvonne Fletcher.
Mail Train, which was on its way to London in August 1963. During ‘The Great Train Robbery,’ it was stopped by a bridge
The van was parked nearby and could not be moved until the 11-day siege ended – by which time the fish had rotted.
One of the odd claims was for a settlement to pay a young apprentice his clothes, which were “ruined” while he worked with farm workers that carried sheets of corrugated steel during high winds.
The small worker was lifted by a gust and carried across the yard with his sheet. He then fell into a tank of liquid manure.
In 1906, there was a £1,000 claim over a fire in the warehouse of whisky merchant James Watson & Co in Dundee. The city was reportedly flooded with whisky that had been burned.
In 1975 another whisky firm put in a claim for missing alcohol – which it later emerged was being syphoned off by an electrician.
Nick Major, Aviva stated that he has seen some of the most bizarre and unusual claims. This shows how planning for the unanticipated is a good business practice.