In Brief
Sangrur Sales Corporation held a fire and special perils insurance policy covering its sanitary ware showroom. When neighbouring excavation work caused the shop to collapse through subsidence, the insurer denied the claim relying on an exclusion clause for "excavations." The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, holding that the exclusion applies only to excavations undertaken by the insured on his own property, not to third-party excavations on independent premises. Where the insured played no role in causing the damage, ambiguities in insurance exclusions must be interpreted in favour of the insured.
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