Clover doesn't support the @Rule method of expecting an exception.

Workaround #1

For Clover to understand that the test is passing you would need to add an 'expected' attribute to the @Test annotation:
http://junit.sourceforge.net/javadoc/org/junit/Test.html#expected()

Workaround #2

Configure Clover report task to use JUnit's XML files as a source of test results, instead of relying on Clover's internal tracking.

• in Ant, use <clover-report>/<current>/<testresults> tag
• in Maven, configure custom report configuration, see Creating+custom+reports 
• in Gradle, use custom clover.reporttask closure, see Advanced+report+configuration