INSURANCE COMPANIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 22 December 1938, Page 5

INSURANCE COMPANIES

WON’T PAY FOR POGROM DAMAGE GERMAN GOVERNMENT CONNIVED [By Air Mail—Special Correspondent] LONDON, 3rd December. Banukruptcy threatens many German insurance companies as a result of the recent pogrom in Germany. They may be called upon to pay the damages, estimated at over £50,000,000, done to Jewish synagogues, and businesses in the disorders on the 9th and 10th of November. While the Jew-s have been ordered to make good much of the damage themselves, insurance companies have been ordered to pay over to the Government the sums due to the Jews. Most of the German companies had reinsured with British companies, and have now passed on the claims to them. But the British companies are refusing to pay on these grounds: 1. That damages are claimed under the “civil commotion” clauses, which have been cut out of most contracts by the Germans themselves. Even where this clause remains it is claimed that “civil commotion” cannot occur in an authoritarian State.

2. It is stated that the British companies can prove that the damage was organised with the connivance of the Government, and can therefore be taken as a:i act of sovereignty not coverable by insurance.

3. The companies can prove that both the police and the fire department were remiss in their duty, so that the insurance companies were not given that measure of protection by the local authorities which is a condition precedent to such reinsurance.